snowblindrpg | [network] @Ecks; In the open [open] [video] evening 156

[She's been thinking about this for days and days now. She's thought about it since House said it was stupid to keep everything a secret and that she'd get more sympathy if she was honest about her age. Since Beckett didn't understand why it was a secret at all. Then since Watson told everyone she was a murderer, but then told Clint she was trying to be a good girl.

Since she ran away from Clint and his people this morning even though he didn't try to hurt her once he knew what she had done to Duster.

She waits until after lockdown just in case they are all wrong and someone will try to find her after this. The video opens with her looking into the camera, her scarf bunched around her neck but her patchwork face clearly on display. Her expression is blank, her voice toneless.]

My name is Ecks and I am not human. I have decided that it is not a secret anymore. I am a golem made out of dead people, but I am a person and that is the part that is important. I am two years old and a few months and I have decided that I do not want to hurt or kill people when I do not have to, and that is also important. Doctor House and Beckett say that it does not matter what I am and I think I would be happy if that is true.

[It seems like there should be more than that to say, but she just stares a moment longer before turning off the camera. She will not bring up the murder if she does not have to.]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

what
that thundering tool
i saw him replying here but i didnt know that was him
you say difficult but i say jackass

no i wasnt dead
i was a more or less normal human guy
only the bird part was dead
i wasnt orange as a human either
that part was just from becoming a sprite
you said your name is ecks right
i was dave
now im davesprite

I don't think so.

[A more honest answer than he might have given someone else.]

How did they control you?

[Oh, audio again. Huh, interesting.]

I... might be? If Zell and the others are still down here in the entrance area. I'm in the aquarium, headed south. Got a few things I want to try down here.

Only if you assume the world is static, rather than busy generating new forms of strangeness even as we speak.

Why are all the people with fake animals in the south? Why are you not going to the new tunnels? I want to be in the new tunnels and you are too far away with the fake animals.

They are not together? But they are boyfriends. I thought they always traveled together, because they are boyfriends.

Where are you? Where is Duster?

That makes sense. I am a new thing, so maybe the other gods' people are also making new things

They told me what to do and I would do it. I did not know that I was a person and I could choose until later

but he is not a tool or a donkey
he is an old man
he is good at questions and medicine
and he is good at science and teaching
but bad at not being in fights
and bad at not dying
and he stole my cigarettes
but i am going back to him to watch after him

i think i understand
it is like being made of different parts
but not sewn together
all one piece by sprite magic?

wtf
what were you doing with cigarettes in the first place
youre two years old
two year olds dont need to be smoking
granted most two year olds arent golems or capable of typing sentences that complicated but thats not the point
and anyway i wasnt being literal
what im saying is that guy is a jerk

technically i think its more a technology thing but its at the level where science might as well be magic or the magic part is scientific
one of those things
but yeah its basically like that
all one piece

Other gods? I wasn't aware that you were made with a religious purpose in mind.

... What? No. They're not... no. They aren't boyfriends, Ecks; they're just friends. At the moment I'm a little southeast of the school. Duster's over in Hsiaoke Pass.

Things are definitely different here. People care about whether or not their friends are happy, at least. And most people would at least like other people they meet to be happy. Unless they're bad people.

[That escalated quickly.]

Um, sorry? I mean I'm not gonna stay down here forever. I'll probably head north in less than a week.

[Sooner than later, since he genuinely does feel bad depriving a poor murdergolem of her stuffed animals. He just has to get to that damn door first!]

Will you be in the tunnels then?

[He really feels for her, seeing so much of the Soldier in her situation. It's after some deliberation, but he eventually turns on audio for something less impersonal than text.]

I know what that's like, it's good that you know you can choose now. Make the right choices.

kinda busy doing useful things
like not getting eaten by anomalies
and why would i give you cigarettes for an apology?
do you think that's valuable to me?

[Aigis gives a sad sigh.] I still feel like it was my fault. Even though I couldn't have known...

[How does a person cope with that kind of guilt?]

...can you tell me what you were built for?

i think yourmedical supplies are valuable to you

i have been doing something useful
i will tell you about it when i come to you

[She's silent and blank for several long seconds. Aigis said what she was made for, and it was not a good thing. Yes, she decides. She can share this.]

I was made to prove that I could be made.

[A week is a long time, but she has learned how to be patient when travel is slow - she knows that it is not a very long time in this place.]

Yes, I will be in the tunnels then. I am going to help find the other side and find the center of the spiral.

[All expressions of doubt regarding Watson's judgment of that relationship die on her tongue.]

...That is where Doctor House is.

[Watson. Watson. Why did you not share this info earlier?]

That is where I am going.

Are there other purposes for making people?

That sounds very nice. Sometimes I think people where I am from cared about their friends but sometimes I think they did not. I think that means they were not really friends.

[She hesitates a moment, but follows his lead on the audio.]

I am trying. It is harder than I thought it would be to make the right choices, but I am trying. How do you know when a choice is the right choice?

[There's a drawn out pause.]

Oh. Um... Well, I think Dr. House is with other people, at least?

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