As the scarf was settled about her neck, Odie reflexively touched it. It felt right. She had been missing it this whole time, the one article of clothing she always wore–the real thing, not the hologram-created outfits she could never afford. It made her want to cry, an emotion threatening to suddenly well up and override the very laissez-faire attitude of a tech goddess at work. Those processes, though, would take too much energy away from regeneration. She couldn’t afford to dehydrate, so she smiled in a wobbly way at Hayzeus, overwhelmed.
“Be not afraid!” Odie said, suddenly, engaging distortion with her voice in a way Allie had assured her was a very funny meme. Humor often diffused difficult situations. It was one of its core philosophies: you could get laughter from disrupting tension. As she understood it, it had something to do with Christian angels, which she resembled in a bizarre way. The unexpected was also core to humor.
“Hayzeus is my friend. He doesn’t talk to other Regulators.” Odie’s remaining arm came up in another very reassuring gesture: the thumbs up. “We can all be friends.”
In the back of her mind, she was reminded that, despite all her reassuring gestures, she was currently mangled and partially devoured. This state of being would normally cause sympathetic distress in those who couldn’t survive such a wound. Hopefully, her attempts at humor and cheer would diffuse that.
Their eyes (John’s notwithstanding, behind their curly bangs) fell to Odie in shock and remained there. Cam’s pointing finger moved to the clean robot-gore. “Did Ruin do that?” he asked, strained.
“No, no, though, to be fair, he did try to kill us and kidnapped Odie, but no. This is actually why I was just talking to him about why we can’t stay.” Hayzeus carefully knelt back down, putting a hand on Odie’s shoulder.
Cirinia blinked several times. “He was chasing a radio signal,” she said suddenly.
“Yyyeah, that was Odie.” Ciri glanced up at Ruin’s helm and shuffled worriedly as Hayzeus continued, “We’ve been looking for her. Look, long story, but I’d like us to get back to the Commune. Do you guys live out here? Wait, are you the servants?”
Taking mild offense to the term servants, Cam explained their relationship with the Idol and keeping him out of society. Hayzeus traded the story of the dragon, convincing them that they should move clubhouses, although that put Ruin closer to Regulators than they were comfortable with.
“I can give him a glamour,” Hayzeus said.
“I just thought, since you quit, maybe they took your powers away or somethin’. I dunno.”
He paused. “No. I still have them. I can memory wipe. But I won’t!”
With Odie’s antigrav systems off, Ruin was the only one who could carry her. They’d teleport to the hospital to cut the distance in half and follow Karma the rest of the way. “You okay with that, Odie?” Hayzeus asked her. “You could go to sleep while he carries you.”
