GAME ON!

Losing isn't fun. That's why I don't do it. READ RULES BEFORE FOLLOWING / KOI NO YOKAN AFFILIATED

[fightforanswers]

“If any machines or people with mechanical parts need something fixed, I have a workshop and I do not charge for repairs!”

[n0nesse]

[n0nesse]

Φ

it’ll be okay, path

[n0nesse]

@fightforanswers

Subject: REPAIRS

Are you available? I need to fix myself up again. It’s a little bit worse than last time.

-9S

[fightforanswers]

As luck would have it, Pathfinder is at his workbench tinkering with his latest project when the message comes through. It sparks immediate concern, and so he sets down his welding torch to reply. What trouble has the smaller robot gotten himself into now?

FROM: Pathfinder TO: 9S

TXT: Of course, friend! I am always prepared to help my fellow machines! :D TXT: Do you need me to pick you up? 

[n0nesse]

fightforanswers replied to your post: ❛ Not to worry, I have a permit. ❜

“Thanks, friend! Would you like to come with me? I am going to give away all of this ice cream to children!”

“Sure, I’ve never been part of a heist before.” 9S hops up onto the top of the truck. “That’s what this is, isn’t it? I’ve seen them in movies, but usually they involve money rather than ice cream.”

[fightforanswers]

He was expecting the other robot to get into the truck, not on top of it, but--that’s his decision and he won’t question it. Pathfinder eases off the gas pedal to avoid throwing his friend into the road.

“Does it count as a heist if we are stealing ice cream? It is a lot less important than money,” he ponders out loud. “As long as we are not caught, we are technically not committing any crimes!”

There’s a red light waiting for them at the next corner. He ignores it.

“Can you see any police cars from up there, 9S?”

[fightforanswers]

Having a day dedicated to celebrating the person you loved was something that transcended parallel universes it seemed, given the multitude of folk carrying flowers around the city. Elliott had hesitated, wondering if it was appropriate before deciding -- fuck it. Some dye and the Leviathan plushie he’d cashed in from the winter games, left him with a bright pink Nessie. He leaves it on Path's porch, with a single red rose across its back, sprinting away without even ringing the doorbell.

The thud of familiar footsteps approaches from behind the door mere seconds after the trickster’s hasty departure, followed by Pathfinder cautiously opening it to peer through the gap. He’s certain he heard someone skulking about outside his apartment, and it appears he was correct–there’s a Nessie waiting for him on his doorstep.

“Oh!” He immediately scoops up the toy and its accompanying rose, trying to ignore the warmth that spreads through his systems upon processing the gesture. What a cute surprise! There’s only one person he can think of that would leave such a gift, and his screen briefly flickers with glowing hearts before he forces it back to its default display.

No. He won’t get his hopes up. He knows better than that. This is a gift for a friend, nothing more–and he can’t be sure it was Mirage who left it to begin with. He squeezes the toy in his hands, and nuzzles his optic against it with a sound reminiscent of a sigh.

I miss home, too.

Hopefully they’ll return, soon, and everything will go back to normal. He’ll reenter the Games, or figure out a different method for finding his creator. Mirage will start pushing him away again and he won’t have to worry about slipping up about his feelings around him. He’ll smile and wave and pretend that losing what they have now doesn’t make him sad.

“Thank you!” he calls out to the seemingly empty street, before stepping back into his apartment with the Nessie hugged securely against his screen. The MRVN knows exactly where to put it--up on the shelf above his workbench, next to the holo-snowglobe he’d received as a gift for the winter holidays.

[fightforanswers]

@missingflame

Pathfinder is totally focused on his target, every step and slow shift of his joints calibrated to be as quiet as possible. He moves in near-silence, the faint whirring of his systems undetectable beneath the background noise of the populace.

It’s a test, for the both of them--how close can he get before Ignis pinpoints his location? Before the MRVN inevitably slips up and makes enough noise to give himself away? He watches his friend’s face intently as he circles him, waiting for some kind of signal to indicate he’s been detected and it’s time to strike.

The subtle twitch of a facial muscle makes him freeze on the spot. His head remains stabilized in place as his shoulders drop, his stance shifting, ready to leap into action. A quick assessment of the situation reveals he’s barely closed the gap from their starting positions.

Incredible, he thinks, barely restraining the urge to speak aloud. His hearing has improved so much already! I’m proud of him!

[fightforanswers]

⚙️

MRVNs are built to last, but even the hardiest models need thorough maintenance every once in a while to avoid breaking down from a cascade of physical faults. It’s been just over a year since he last underwent any major repairs or upgrades, and while doing so without a fully-kitted machine bay is a painstaking process, he knows it’s a bad idea to postpone it any longer.

So, he shuts himself in his apartment and gets to work. The task of removing his outer shell takes almost two hours, and scanning each and every separate piece for damage is another hour on top of that. His right ankle-guard is starting to lose its integrity, and there’s a barely visible dent along the inner curve of his left shoulder socket. He makes a note to replace those parts.

He sets the scanned components aside, and disengages the clamps holding his screen and its bulky housing in place. The handles are next, then the outermost plating of both arms, and then he’s about to remove his grapple when there’s a knock at his door.

Some company would definitely make this overwhelmingly tedious task more bearable, so he calls out: “Come in!”

He wasn’t expecting his visitor to be Mirage, but he’s happy to see him nonetheless. He seems confused, and it’s with a jolt that the MRVN realizes his friend has never seen him in a state of disassembly before. If he were a flesh-and-blood human, he’d be embarrassed. It’s a good thing he’s not human and feels no shame about having his circuits on display.

“I am performing routine maintenance,” he explains, picking at a loose cable in his arm. “Would you like to help me? It is boring but necessary, like going to the dentist.”

[fightforanswers]

@anarchydotexe | from here

He isn’t expecting the stranger to acknowledge him with such enthusiasm and looks more than a little surprised, albeit pleasantly so, when she does. An exclamation point flashes up on his screen, and he raises a hand in an awkward wave.

“There are not many of us,” he admits in response to her comment. “Where I come from, there are a lot of MRVNs everywhere--but I am the only one here! It is strange, and I miss having other robots to talk to.”

He reaches down to pick up the wick, bringing it closer to his optic to examine it for a moment before holding it out to his new friend.

“I am bored, and I know my way around a servomechanism. I can help you with your repairs,” he cheerfully offers. “Did you design that arm yourself? It looks cool!”

[n0nesse]

path.

[fightforanswers]

n0nesse‌:

As soon as he figures out what’s happening, 9S tries to leap off, but he’s not quick enough and Pathfinder successfully slams him into the ground. Cruel Oath goes flying out of his hand and skitters into the grass. His sensors inform him LEFT LEG DAMAGED, simulated pain shooting up the limb. He yelps and twists around, scrabbling for purchase against the concrete, pausing when the machine speaks to him again. 

“Why-” he pants through gritted teeth. “Why would they trap a machine here? Do you seriously not know anything?” Great, he’d gotten himself damaged for nothing, without his Pod to help him make repairs, either. What a huge pain in the ass. Maybe he should just be grateful this machine didn’t seem too upset with him. 9S tries again to try himself out from under… Pathfinder, as it had called itself, to no avail. He sighs heavily. “Could you get up? I won’t attack you this time. Promise.” 

“Hm!” He taps the fingers of one hand against the opposite arm and turns his optic away, feigning the act of considering the other’s demands. “OK, but if you break your promise, I will throw you in that dumpster over there!”

Rocking up into a crouch, he kneels next to the other robot and offers him a helping hand. Their brief scuffle is instantly forgotten, forgiven, discarded as irrelevant. It’s not often that Pathfinder meets another machine that can think and talk like he can, and he’d rather be friends instead of enemies.

“The Project studies the bonds that form between people,” he explains, to the best of his ability. “We are here because we are interesting test subjects. I have been trying to find a way to escape so I can help my friends go home, but I haven’t found anything yet!”

Glitterbuck trots over to hide behind its master’s leg and stare at the android with its faceted eyes, and he pets it gently.

“If you need repairs, I have a workbench you can borrow. Do you have a name, friend?”

[fightforanswers]

encleaner‌:

“Huh?” Noi sniffles in a way that suggests that it’s possible she had been roused to crocodile tears, but it’s not exactly easy to tell behind the mask. “Oh… Thanks… I mean… I’m pretty strong…”

She lets out a sigh and sits back on her feet to get a look at the stranger who approached her and–oh, wow. What is he? She gives him a good once-over. He certainly looks more advanced than the robotic bodies En managed to produce. Whatever smoke powering him must be powerful as hell, and she’s about to remark on that when he makes his offer.

Noi positively sparkles, leaping from her seated position.

“What! You mean it!? Okay!!”

Not a moment’s hesitation later, she’s pried off the grate near-effortlessly, torn from its screws like paper ripped from a notebook.

“What are you gonna do?”

Whether those tears are exaggerated or not, he still wants to help. He narrowly avoids being knocked on his backside when the giant woman leaps to her feet and instinctively ducks as the grate is ripped from the ground. Thankfully, she doesn’t toss it.

“I’m going to reach in there and grab it, of course!”

The opening looks pretty narrow, and there’s no doubt it’s going to leave some nasty scrapes on his plating, but he doesn’t mind a little cosmetic damage. Pathfinder gives her an encouraging thumbs up before awkwardly wriggling his arm into the drain, fingers blindly grasping for the thin slip of paper until he feels it brush against his outermost sensors.

“I got it, friend!”

He tugs, but nothing happens. He shutters his optic in a confused blink and tries again. A warning message helpfully informs him the movement of his right arm is restricted from the shoulder down, and he starts to panic, feet scrabbling for purchase but doing nothing to free his trapped limb.

“Oh, no. I’m stuck! What do I do?!”

[sortofrpmemes]

Send in ‘⚙️’ for your muse to walk on mine muse fixing themselfs

For all robots/androids out there.

[n0nesse]

path.

[fightforanswers]

n0nesse‌:

9S clings as the machine thrashes and pleads with him, making it utterly impossible to get his sword into any sort of threatening position. Admittedly it’s a lot more agile than he thought it would be. He wraps his arms around it neck and his legs around its chest, just trying not to lose grip on his sword, gritting his teeth and hoping it’d give him a window to do something useful. It’s times like these’s he’s reminded quite sharply that he’s not a combat model.

“Tell me where we are!” He demands. If it wanted to talk so badly, then they’d talk. His voice is a little muffled, his cheek pressed awkwardly against its head. “Who’s in charge of this place? What are you?” 

The android doesn’t let him go, which is upsetting. He doesn’t enjoy the experience of being ridden without his permission. Hopefully his unwanted passenger will survive having nine-hundred and thirty-seven pounds of MRVN dropped on top of him, because that’s exactly what his next maneuver entails.

Throwing himself backwards, Pathfinder slams himself into the ground--trapping his assailant between his chassis and the cold, hard sidewalk. He folds his arms quite melodramatically and vents an angry huff. What a humiliating situation to be in for both of them!

“You are a rude little robot! Didn’t your manufacturer program you with manners?”

Maybe he’s being too harsh on the unfamiliar model. There are a multitude of possibilities that would explain why he is acting the way he is. He turns his head just enough to be able to see his captive and switches to a more sympathetic tone.

“I am a MRVN, but my friends called me Pathfinder. I do not want to fight you. I am trapped here just like you are!”

[n0nesse]

path.

@fightforanswers

It’s not one of the machines he’s familiar with. Lanky, brilliant blue compared to the dull, rust-colored things he was used to subjugating. But a machine was a machine, and a machine could be hacked. It wasn’t hostile, that much was clear as he trailed it at a distance, but it still ought to have useful data on it. Something to help him learn about this city and the project he’d been volunteered for. 

9S waits for it to wander onto a quieter walkway, away from the more populated canal’s edge, before creeping closer and extending a hand in preparation for a remote hack. He initiates it… and nothing happens.

After looking down at his hands in silent shock, he tries again. An orange popup appears in his vision, reading HACKING OFFLINE. Really? His hacking and his NFCS were locked? And he didn’t even have his Pod? What was with this place taking all his abilities away?? 

He scoffs to himself and draws Cruel Oath from his belt. If he couldn’t hack this machine, maybe he could get information another way. He dashes forward and leaps onto the machine’s back, grabbing it by its cylindrical head. 

[fightforanswers]

The smaller humanoid machine following him doesn’t seem like a threat, so he pretends he can’t see him and continues walking with Glitterbuck. Maybe he’s shy and doesn’t know what to say. He won’t force his new friend to converse. It’s likely he just arrived, and is still getting used to how weird this alien society is.

After a while, the MRVN forgets about his tail altogether. He doesn’t have the mental capacity to focus on a thousand different things at once, and this place is so exciting and colorful and loud! There’s music coming from somewhere nearby and he immediately changes course to go find the source. If there’s a party, he wants in.

Something attacks him before he can find it, though. He feels something heavy slam into his back and grab at his head and he bucks reflexively, trying and failing to throw his assailant off. A half-second later he realizes it’s the same android from before. What has he done to upset him?

“Whoa, friend! That is not a very nice way to say hello! Please let go--”

He jumps and spins and kicks like a wild horse, his crystal companion watching, bewildered, from a safe distance.

“--and we can talk about this!”

[fightforanswers]

Updated the rules for this blog and @synthmare. Please read over them if you get the chance! ❤️

[strwbrrysweetheart]

🍓 @fightforanswers liked for a starter!

The comforting cold of the rink blanketed Puck as he sat on the bench just outside its walls, quietly watching the skaters as they looped lap after lap before him. Oh how he’d wished to join them. How many times had he come here and sat outside the rink instead, the ice skates resting heavily against his legs as he just… stared? Too many, in his opinion.

It had been many, many decades since he’d properly walked like a human being, simply preferring to float about. That wasn’t a possibility anymore, he stretched his legs restlessly, he was grounded. Literally.

Truth be told he’d never even been skating before unless slipping around the pond in someone’s backyard in only his socks counted? Probably not, skating involves… actual skates, with blades, and balance.

Balance that he didn’t have.

What Puck also didn’t have was spatial awareness, completely unaware of the very large, very blue robot approaching him. Woah, that dude just did a FLIP! How do you even JUMP in skates like that?

[fightforanswers]

Winter brings nasty things, like icy roads and seasonal depression--but it also brings nice things, like skating rinks at which he can receive compliments for showing off his impressive style. Every so often one of the newcomers approaches him, lacking confidence in their own abilities, and Pathfinder dances with them until they’re laughing and ready to skate on their own.

There’s a lonely figure sitting to the side who looks like he could definitely use some help. The MRVN glides over, weaving through the other skaters to lean against the dividing wall. His friend seems lost and confused, which simply won’t do. Everyone should be having fun at a skating rink!

“Hello, Puck! You have been sitting there for a while. Would you like to dance with me?” He pushes open the nearby gate, reaching out a hand to the other encouragingly. “I promise I won’t let you fall!”

He’ll carry his friend on his back if he has to, as long as he gets to enjoy the thrill of zooming around on the ice at dangerous speeds. There’s less people populating the rink now, late in the day as it is, so what better time to teach Puck how to skate?

[encleaner]

@fightforanswers

When she didn’t have someone to set her straight, Noi was bad at paying attention. Could you blame her? The world was full of distractions as it was, but it was that ghost of a devil in her that really sealed the deal, the effects of an exam that never really went away–the desire to obey only the most gratifying whims, even if they were, well, stupid.

And, boy, were they stupid sometimes. That’s how she found herself on the sidewalk, on all fours, banging on a steel drain grate.

“Nooooooo!”

Noi had been en route to using that handy little All-U-Can-Eat buffet coupon the suckers that ran this island so graciously bestowed upon her. She felt it was the right time; the stress of not knowing how things were back home was starting to get to her, and she hadn’t had a real good fight in weeks. She was restless. But in a moment of distraction, the ticket slipped from her hands in the wind and right into the drain.

“God damnit!!”

Even if she removed the grate, which she could do with ease, it was simply too small and too deep for her to successfully fetch it. So Noi chose to sit there,  mourning her loss and redirecting foot traffic.

It was pretty sad.

[fightforanswers]

Pathfinder almost misses the despondent stranger as he prances on his merry way, but the sound of someone in distress turns his head. Immediately, he slips through the crowd to stand at her side, and is about to rest a reassuring hand on her shoulder when the enormity of the... er, situation, strikes him.

“Wow! You might be the biggest person I’ve ever met!” He means that as a compliment, of course--it’s not often that he meets someone a lot taller (and overall larger) than he is. “Are you as strong as you look, friend?”

Wait. She was upset about something, wasn’t she? The MRVN leans over to look at the grate, his optic squinting at the barely visible coupon trapped beneath their feet. Is that what she’s trying to reach? A lightbulb flickers on his screen as he bounces back a safe distance, pointing at the grate.

“If you lift that, I will try and get your coupon for you! If I can’t, I will get you a new one!”