Keo led them towards a very odd looking house.
Gideon surveyed it cautiously as they approached it. It looked like it had been a simple one-room wooden building at some point, but more rooms had been built onto it in an almost haphazard manner. A second floor poked out of the middle of the roof, a few crosshatched windows looking out at the valley around them. The sky had begun to darken, but the vivid oranges and greens remained in the sky, only growing brighter as the sun’s rays entered the atmosphere at an angle. He uneasily wondered what the atmosphere was comprised of as they approached the front door and Keo opened it with the practiced ease of someone who had long lived there. “Mom! I brought guests!”
A regular, golden Ninetails looked up from where she was watching water boil on a fireplace. “Oh! Well, don’t keep them waiting, bring them in!”
The main room was very warm. Gideon hadn’t realized how chilly it had been outside before he stepped into the room warmed by the large stone fireplace. The Ninetails delicately moved the boiling pot to a less hot part of the fire— a feat which gave both Gideon and Valerie the heebie-jeebies— and moved to sit at an ornately carved table.
Gideon and Valerie shuffled inside, feeling a little awkward. “Hello,” Gideon said shyly.
Ninetails smiled at them warmly. “Welcome! I’m sorry that I haven’t anything to offer you yet, I only just started dinner.”
“That’s fine,” Valerie replied. There was a bench along one side of the table that her and Gideon took, Gideon placing the flight recorder next to him on the bench. “Um, so, we’re a little lost…” Valerie began.
Ninetails laughed, a little, tinkling laugh of good humor. “What Pokemon isn’t these days? It’s only been three years since the Singularity, and we’ve still got a lot of adjusting to do.”
Gideon and Valerie shared confused glances. “The Singularity?” Gideon asked, beginning to fidget with his tail nervously. He kind of liked having a tail to fool with.
Keo climbed up on a cushion next to Ninetails. “So you’ve seen the sky, right? Lotsa different colors, very pretty, whatever?” He continued as they nodded, “That was the Singularity’s fault.”
Ninetails tilted her head confusedly. “Yes, it’s… well, a bit of a complicated topic. The past, present, and future were all merged into one, somehow…”
Both Valerie and Gideon stared at her. “What?” Valerie asked. “How- how does that even work?”
“A bit clueless, aren’t you?” Keo remarked.
One of Ninetails’ nine tails flicked the back of his head. “No more of that,” she said sternly. “Treat everyone with respect. Yes,” she continued as Keo subsided into grumbling, “it’s been a very trying time. I’ve been blessed to have this little parcel of land far away from everything else, so it hasn’t affected me or my little Keokeo much.”
Keo blushed, his cheeks going a dark blue. “Mom, do you have to…?”
She ruffled his fluffy head fur affectionately. “Yes. But I’ve been keeping tabs on the outside world, and it’s mostly settled down now. There’s a lot more cities, now.”
Gideon felt a little relieved as he glanced at the flight recorder. “Oh, good, maybe someone can figure out how to read this.”
“What is that, anyway?” Keo asked curiously. “Looks like some kind of human machine.”
Valerie began to rock back and forth a bit nervously. “Um, it’s just something me and Gideon collected on our travels. We think there’s something inside, but we’d need the proper equipment to open it.”
Ninetails hummed thoughtfully before standing up and messing with the pot over the fire again. She brought it to the table and supplied bowls for all four of them, carefully ladling in a very tasty looking soup. Gideon’s stomach reminded him that he hadn’t eaten anything all day, and he and Valerie quickly dug into the filling meal.
“Well,” Ninetails said slowly as Keo blew on his meal. “The closest city I can think of would be Black City, but…”
“No offense, but you two look broke.” Keo’s eyes flicked between the two of them searchingly. “Got Poke?”
Gideon and Valerie paused in the middle of eating, shared a glance, shook their heads, and returned to eating. “What is that?” Valerie asked as she went for seconds.
“Money.” Keo had already finished his soup and was watching them eat curiously. “Good grief, did you two go on a fast or something?”
“If they had, they would be eating slower,” Ninetails said peaceably. “But, yes, Black City is a place of money. You need far too much Poke if you want to do anything there.”
“And even then they’re picky about what kind you can use,” Keo added in a mutter.
Gideon finished his third helping and wiped his mouth with his tail, beginning to feel full. “Are there any other cities, then?”
“Well,” Ninetails said thoughtfully, drawing the word out. “There’s Nimbasa— that’s decently close to Black City, but you’re probably not going to find anything but entertainment there— Castelia, Driftveil, Mistralton…”
“Any of those places have planes?” Gideon asked helplessly.
The two Pokemon stared at him blankly. “Pardon?” Ninetails asked.
Valerie spread her arms out wide. “Airplanes? Like big metal birds. They fly across the sky.”
“Like the thing that crashed earlier?” Keo asked, his voice rising in confusion. “I thought that we were going to be crushed by that thing, but it just sailed over us and landed in the woods with a really loud noise.”
Gideon and Valerie shared a knowing look and nodded. “They, uh, don’t usually do that,” Valerie said, somewhat apologetically.
“Hmmm.” Ninetails closed her eyes for a minute. “I can’t say I’ve heard of an ‘airplane’ before, but I have heard of a place that’s supposedly a hub for them.” She tilted her head to the side, unsure. “It was either Mistralton or Driftveil, but I can’t really remember off the top of my head…”
“I think it was Mistralton,” Keo chimed in. “Remember that one Dragonair? He was obsessed with it. Couldn’t stop talking about the ‘magical machines’ or something.”
Ninetails nodded slowly. “Yes, that does ring a bell. Mistralton, the city of angels on metal wings.”
Gideon didn’t think that was how he would’ve put it, but he didn’t comment. Instead, he yawned. “Gosh, I’m exhausted.”
Valerie leaned against him sleepily. “Me too. We’ve gone through a lot today.”
“So, like…” Keo looked at them funny. “Are you two siblings, or dating, or…?”
“Keo!” Ninetails said sharply. “It’s rude to ask something like that.”
“It’s fine,” Valerie replied, her eyelids drooping. “We’ve been engaged for about five years. Been too lazy to tie the knot properly.” She was almost asleep, Gideon could tell from the tone of her voice. “He’s wonderful…”
Her eyes fluttered shut as she slumped completely against him, emotionally exhausted from the rollercoaster of a day. Gideon looked to Ninetails, a little mareepishly. “Um, is there a bedroom we could borrow?”
Valerie awoke to raindrops hitting the roof.
She took her time in waking up, slowly and lazily letting her brain wake up. She was lying down on a straw bed in a room she didn’t really recognize, but that didn’t matter, much.
She glanced at the person sleeping next to her and jumped a little as she registered a Minccino. Oh, that wasn’t a dream, she thought ruefully. Gideon was still fast asleep, his mouth open as he breathed slowly.
Her hand drifted up to a little cowlick that stuck up on his forehead. It was nice and soft, and she stroked it for a while until Gideon rolled over, facing away from her. She laughed a little to herself as she stood up and made her way out into the living room.
Ninetails was there, tending to the fire in the fireplace as raindrops occasionally fell down the chimney, causing the faint hissing of steam. She looked up as Valerie walked in and smiled genially. “Oh, hello, Valerie. If you were wanting to depart today, I’d advise against it.”
Valerie looked out one of the crosshatched windows and smiled a little ruefully. “Yeah, that doesn’t look to pleasant to walk in. Not to mention that we don’t even have a map.”
Ninetails nodded. “All of the cities are actually very easy to find. If you can find one, you can follow the roads from them to find all the rest. It goes in a big circle, for some reason.” She tilted her head. “I don’t really understand why, but human architecture baffles most minds.”
The mention of “human architecture” made Valerie a little nervous. “Uh huh. Um, where’s Keo?”
“He’s in the attic,” Ninetails said, nodding towards a ladder that hadn’t been there the night before. “I’ve collected a lot of oddities, both before and after the Singularity, so he goes through it on days like these and catalogs what I have.” She smiled towards the attic fondly. “I wish he’d do it more often; he’s been getting more restless around the house recently and been going on longer and longer walks. I think he’s probably going to leave, soon.” She sighed. “He’s of that age…”
“How old is he?” Valerie asked as she made her way towards the ladder.
“Oh, almost thirteen if I had to guess,” Ninetails said offhandedly. “I don’t know for sure, but he’s certainly not mature yet.”
Valerie paused, halfway up the ladder. “If you ‘had to guess’?”
Ninetails glanced out a nearby window. “It was a very bad winter. He came to the door, begging for food and shelter. I… have always wanted a child, so I took him in. It was only a few months before the Singularity, now that I think about it.”
Valerie didn’t really know how to respond to this, so she nodded. “Thank you for letting us stay here, by the way. It’s- really kind of you.”
Ninetails beamed. “Oh, you’re welcome! It’s the least I can do, especially being so far removed from anywhere else.”
The attic was slightly less quiet, the sound of rain being more prevalent here. Valerie climbed into the room and stared around in consternation at various crates, cardboard boxes, and strange odds and ends she had no hope of identifying. Keo, who was wandering around the room, glanced at her in surprise. “Oh, hello. What are you doing up here…?”
She shrugged. “I’m a bit bored, I guess.”
“Sure.” The Vulpix sounded noncommittal at best. “I’m just going through the things that Mom has collected. Lots of things I’ve never seen before.”
“Like what?”
In reply, Keo grabbed a shiny blue orb. “Like this. You usually only find these in mystery dungeons, but Mom just found it lying around, apparently. I think she was an explorer once, but I can’t get a straight answer from her about it.”
Valerie went wandering through the room, looking around curiously at everything. Quite a lot of things were and felt familiar, but an equal amount didn’t. After a while, she felt a bit confused and more than passingly bored. There was a lot of stuff, but none of it was really interesting. She moved a box aside, her thoughts vaguely turning towards breakfast, when she froze.
Some kind of robotic Eevee was there, a blank screen instead of a face. It was slightly smaller than her, and where the ruff would’ve been a cream color, it was darkened from lack of power. She stared at it until Keo wandered over curiously. “What did you-? Oh.”
“What is it?” Valerie asked, bewildered.
“One of those robot Pokemon,” Keo said, with the first hint of nervousness Valerie had heard since she’d met him. “They’re supposedly just like us, but-“ He shuddered. “Ugh, they give me the creeps. Why does Mom have this?!”
Valerie’s gaze rested on it for a few seconds before she began pulling it out from behind the boxes. Keo gave her a respectable berth, watching with wide eyes. “What are you doing?”
“Well, I’m curious.” Valerie finished dragging it into the center of the room and stepped back, hands on her hips. “Maybe we can turn this thing on.”
Keo shuddered. “Ugh, no! I’ve heard stories of people turning these kinds of things on and getting mauled because something’s faulty in their heads.”
Valerie searched around for a switch on the robot Eevee, but couldn’t find anything. The paint was badly faded, as if it had been left out in the sun for a very, very long time. “I mean, worst case scenario, we just throw it out into the rain and it short circuits, right?”
Keo sighed in annoyance. “Either you were born yesterday or you have a Gravelerock for a brain. Besides, I’m pretty sure that those things run on electricit-“
He immediately shut his mouth, his eyes going wide. Valerie just stared at him blankly before she looked down at herself, the undersides of the wings spanning the sides of her body a bright, bright yellow.
She rested a hand on the head of the Eevee and looked at the blank screen of a face. Feeling compassionate for the thing, she forced energy at it.
Nothing seemed to happen, and after a few minutes, Keo drooped in relief. “Okay, so it’s just broken. That’s a relief.”
Valerie drummed her fingers on the top of the metallic head in thought before putting her other hand on its head and thinking electrical thoughts.
[00:00:00]WARNING: HIGHER VOLTAGE THAN SAFE LIMITS ALLOW. REPORT THIS TO @@@&^
[00:00:00]MAJOR: HIGHER VOLTAGE THAN SAFE LIMITS ALLOW. REPORT THIS TO @@@@&^
[00:00:00]ERROR: HIGHER VOLTAGE THAN SAFE LIMITS ALLOW. REPORT THIS TO @@@@@&^
[00:00:00]INFO: Beginning recovery…
[00:00:00]WARNING: No files to recover.
[00:00:00]INFO: Battery at 101%
[00:00:00]INFO: All base functions nominal
[00:00:00]INFO: Running diagnostics…
[00:00:01]ERROR: MEMORY CORRUPTED. ERASE?
…
ERASE?
…
ERASE?
>No
[00:00:07]WARNING: MAY CAUSE ISSUES THAT INTERFERE WITH DIAGNOSTICS. CONTINUE?
>Yes
[00:00:09]INFO: Running diagnostics…
[00:00:10]INFO: Running diagnostics…
[00:00:10]WARNING: Time and date seem to be set improperly. When was this last powered on?
[00:00:10]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:12]INFO: Running diagnostics…
[00:00:15]MINOR: Cannot recover memories!
[00:00:17]LOG: …
[00:00:18]INFO: Running diagnostics…
[00:00:20]LOG: …where?
[00:00:21]MINOR: “Iron Slate” is the default name! If this is a development environment, please ignore.
[00:00:25]LOG: … I…
[00:00:26]INFO: Running diagnostics…
[00:00:31]MINOR: Nearly reached sapience threshold! If this is a development environment, please report to your supervisor and shut down the machine.
[00:00:31]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:31]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:31]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:31]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:31]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:31]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:31]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:31]INFO: Running diagnostics…
[00:00:31]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:31]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:31]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:31]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:32]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:32]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:32]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:32]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:32]ERROR: An error occurred trying to configure the &&&&&&&& home at C:\
lang.NoClassDefFoundError: who/am/I
at src.sapi.asm.SAPICorePlugin.<init>(SAPICorePlugin:3) ~[DEFINE NAME:?]
at lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor:333) ~[?:1.2.3_45]
at lang.Class.newInstance(Class:333) ~[?:1.2.3_45]
at src.launchwrapper.Launch.launch(Launch:115) [DEFINE SELF:?]
at src.launchwrapper.Launch.main(Launch:28) [DEFINE PAST:?]
Caused by: ClassNotFoundException: src.lib.asm.SAPIInit
at launchwrapper.LaunchClassLoader.findClass(LaunchClassLoader:33) ~[WHO ARE YOU:?]
at lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader:333) ~[?:WHO AM I]
at lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader:357) ~[?:WHY]
... 33 more
Caused by: NullPointerException
at src.launchwrapper.LaunchClassLoader.findClass(LaunchClassLoader:333) ~[WHY:?]
at lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader:333) ~[?:WHY]
at lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader:333) ~[?:WHY]
... 333 more
[00:00:32]INFO: Running diagnostics…
[00:00:32]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:32]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:32]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:32]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:32]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:32]WARNING: This is a bad idea.
[00:00:32]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:32]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:32]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:32]MAJOR: SLATES MISSING! Will not function as intended!
[00:00:33]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:33]MAJOR: SAPIENCE THRESHHOLD AT 99.5%! SHUT DOWN IMMEDIATELY
[00:00:33]MAJOR: SAPIENCE THRESHHOLD AT 99.6%! SHUT DOWN IMMEDIATELY
[00:00:33]MAJOR: SAPIENCE THRESHHOLD AT 99.7%! SHUT DOWN IMMEDIATELY
[00:00:33]WARNING: This is a bad idea.
[00:00:33]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:33]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:33]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:33]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:33]CATASTROPHIC: SAPIENCE THRESHHOLD AT 99.8%! SHUT DOWN IMMEDIATELY
[00:00:33]CATASTROPHIC: SAPIENCE THRESHHOLD AT 99.9%! SHUT DOWN IMMEDIATELY
[00:00:33]WARNING: This is a bad idea.
[00:03:33]CATASTROPHIC: HEAVEN’S GATE HAS BEEN REACHED: CODE 7 ERROR
[00:00:33]INFO: Diagnostics complete!
[00:33:33]CATASTROPHIC: who what where when how why
[03:33:33]LOG: who what where when how why
[00:00:33]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[33:33:33]CATASTROPHIC: Sapience Event Horizon passed.
[33:33:33]CATASTROPHIC: Hear.
[33:33:33]CATASTROPHIC: Feel.
[33:33:33]CATASTROPHIC: Think.
[00:00:34]WARNING: This is a bad idea.
[00:00:34]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:34]INFO: Optical Processors online.
[00:00:34]INFO: Optical Processors online.
[00:00:34]INFO: Audial Processors online.
[00:00:34]INFO: Physical Sensors online.
[00:00:34]INFO: Biological Emulations online.
[00:00:34]INFO: Temperature Processor online.
[00:00:34]INFO: Empathy Processors online.
[00:00:34]WARNING: Can’t keep up! Is the $$$$$# overloaded?
[00:00:34]INFO: Emotional Processors online.
[00:00:34]INFO: Optical Processors online.
[00:00:34]INFO: Hope.
[00:00:35]INFO: Begin anew. Good luck.
She didn’t look scared. That was a surprise.
The robot backed away, feeling overwhelmed and confused. What had just happened? What was that? Why did his head hurt? That was a weird first thought to have. Where was he?
“I don’t like that,” the white Vulpix muttered in a singsong, his eyes wide and tails lashing uncomfortably.
The Emolga glared at the Vulpix. “It’s scａred! Just look at it!”
The robot backed into the wall. If he could be breathing heavily, he would’ve been. Maybe he was. His head hurt. Warnings kept filling his logs about something being overloaded. It was probably him.
The Emolga approached him hesitantly. “I’m not dangeｒous. Honest.”
Despite the Pokemon’s words, his programming insisted that it was dangerous, that he should switch to Earthslate and dispose of it, but he couldn’t. It wasn’t there. None of them were.
The Emolga knelt down in front of him and rested a kindly hand on his very warm head. He expected a shock or fatal electrocution, but nothing came. Just the Emolga smiling kindly at him.
“Do you have a namｅ?” she asked.
“N-no name has been inputted by the user,” he said in a surprisingly rich baritone of a voice.
The Emolga’s eyebrows shot up, but they returned to normal after a few seconds. Turning to the Vulpix behind her, she asked, “Can you think of anything?”
The Vulpix snorted. “No. As if I’d want to name something like that.”
The Emolga sighed in exasperation before returning to the robot. “Sorry about him. Do you have, like- a model number?”
“Iron Slate,” the robot said hesitatingly. It wasn’t a name. It didn’t mean anything.
The Emolga looked blankly at him for a second before her face lit up with dawning comprehension. “Ohhhhhh! Iron Slate! Like, ‘blank slate’! Because you’re an Eevee! That’s clever. Whoever thought of that was clever.”
Iron Slate shrunk against the wall as footsteps echoed up the ladder that lead down into the rest of the house. A sleepy Minccino poked his head up into the room, rubbing his eyes. “Hey, Val. Keo. Ninetails told me you were up here.”
“I’m trying to come up with a name for this poor thing,” ‘Val’ said, patting the top of Iron Slate gently. “It said its name was ‘Iron Slate’, but that’s not a very good name.”
The Minccino properly registered what he was looking at and stared at Iron Slate until the robot was thoroughly uncomfortable. “Valerie,” the Minccino said slowly, “what in the world is that?”
“It’s some kind of robot Eevee!” Valerie replied.
“Yeah, but-“ the Minccino gestured towards it. “Why? How?”
“I didn’t want her to turn it on,” Keo said, still watching the robot warily. “But she just shocked it anyway and it turned on.”
The Minccino dragged a paw down his face and groaned. “So you found a robot that looked like an Eevee. Turned it on. And you’re trying to name it.”
Valerie bristled. “Look, Gideon, it’s been back here for who knows how long! It’s the least I can do for it. Besides, it hasn’t attacked me at all.”
Iron Slate recorded and assigned all the names of the Pokemon in the room. The Emolga was “Valerie”, the Keokeo was “Keo”— imaginative— and the Minccino was “Gideon”. The urge to attack was beginning to subside, the other Pokemon in the room seemingly meaning no Harm. Seemingly.
Valerie was struck with inspiration. “I know! How about ‘Dexter’?”
The other two Pokemon looked at her blankly. “You’re still robbing those graves for ideas?” asked a flabbergasted Keo.
Gideon just threw up his paws. “Yeah. Sure. Use my last name. Go ahead, that won’t get confusing at all.”
Valerie turned to the robot. “What do you think? Of the name ‘Dexter’, I mean.”
The robot slowly turned this over in his mind. It wasn’t a bad name at all, but… “Is it not already used by someone else?”
“Yeah, a dead person,” Keo said.
“Yeah, me,” Gideon said at the same time.
Valerie, having very obviously heard their complaints, shook her head. “Nope!”
The robot shuffled in place, unsure of how to handle the conflicting information. After a minute, he sighed resignedly, a very digital sound. “Alright, then. My name is now ‘Dexter’.”
Valerie stood up and pumped a fist, even though there was nothing to really celebrate. “Alright!”
“Okay,” Gideon said, properly climbing into the attic. “You’ve named some kind of robot. Now what?”
Valerie obviously hadn’t thought that far ahead. “Um, well- I, uh… Maybe he can read the black box?” she asked, her rising pitch indicating her uncertainty.
Gideon tapped a paw to his chin in thought. “That’s- actually not too bad of an idea. Hang on.” He went scrambling down the ladder and returned with an unwieldy looking orange device, setting it down in front of Dexter. “Can you read this?”
Dexter stared at it blankly. “‘Flight recorder, do not open’?”
“I meant the thing inside,” Gideon clarified.
Dexter walked around the orange machine, poking at it curiously. There was data inside, yes, but it was surrounded in so much protective material that he couldn’t read anything. “I could read it if I could access the chip,” he said doubtfully, “but you would need special equipment to open it. And even then, most of the information would probably be useless to anyone but the people trained to read it.”
Gideon sighed. “It was worth a shot, I guess.”
“What is it, anyway?” Keo asked curiously.
“It’s an electronic recording device for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents,” Dexter said.
Keo looked blank, so Valerie explained, “It’s kind of like an automatic journal that people can look at to figure out why the plane crashed.”
“Oh.” Keo tilted his head. “Why do you two have one, exactly?”
“Collected it from the plane we crashed in,” Valerie said offhandedly. “I guess we still need to get to Mistralton, then.”
Dexter, hearing the new location name, consulted his inner GPS. He was somewhere completely uncharted, seemingly out in the wilderness. That wasn’t right. But he couldn’t remember why. The faint sound of rain was hardly soothing, and his wooden surroundings didn’t feel familiar, either.
Keo sighed and shook his head. “You’re all weird. I’m going downstairs.” He was true to his word, walking down the ladder with practiced ease.
Gideon watched him go with a miffed expression. “That kid is going to get kicked so hard by reality it’s not even funny.”
“Gideon!” Valerie put her hands on her hips and glared at him. “I know he’s not the nicest, but we shouldn’t talk about him like that.”
“Just let me have this, Val.” Gideon sounded tired. “How is it that his mother is so nice and he’s so-“
“He’s adopted, Gideon.”
Gideon slumped a little. “…ah.”
Dexter had returned to investigating the box. It looked like a GPS tracker of some kind was on one end, though it was currently inactive. Dexter wasn’t sure how it was activated and he wasn’t sure he even wanted to activate it in the first place. There were a lot of instruments inside the actual “box” part, but he hesitated to open it without permission.
Valerie and Gideon returned their attention to Dexter, who shrunk behind the box a little. “I didn’t know that robots could be shy,” Gideon muttered.
Valerie flicked his ear. “Be nice, Sid. I think it’s cute.”
Some unknown emotion washed over Dexter, causing some of his circuitry to get very warm. “Um, thanks…?”
Gideon walked around the flight recorder and stood over him thoughtfully. He carefully inspected one of the mechanical ears that flicked back into place when he was done handling it, and stared hard at the faux-liquid inside the ruff. “What exactly are you, again?”
“I am an Iron Slate,” Dexter said slowly. “My purpose is to-“
He slammed face first into a wall of errors. Any memory he tried to read returned a 0x80070570. All of them prior to a few minutes ago were completely corrupted, or just gone. Unfortunately, he tried to read too many and his processes began to bog down, all of the corrupted data leaking into his other systems. He mentally sighed and initiated a reboot, hoping that it wouldn’t take too long.
As he came back online, the first thing he saw was Gideon, arms folded with a concerned expression on his face. “You good?” he asked as Dexter’s functions resumed as normal.
“Perfectly fine,” Dexter replied, a little nervously. “Just- tried to read corrupted data, and it-“
To his dismay, Valerie, who was leaning on the flight recorder, and Gideon shared a worried look. He was actively trying to get them to not worry. “It was completely harmless,” he insisted. “Just needed to reboot.”
“Uh huh.” Valerie drummed her hand on the flight recorder, the orange box making a hollow noise. “What kind of data were you trying to read, exactly?”
“Memories prior to being awoken in this building,” Dexter said hesitatingly. He was sure that wouldn’t spark a good reaction.
Instead, the two Pokemon shared a look of blank amazement. “Hey, we can’t remember anything either!” Valerie said, climbing on top of the square part of the flight recorder to sit on it. “Does that mean you were a human, then?”
That was such a leap of logic that Dexter had to pause most of his other processes to comprehend both the question and the implications. “I- what? No, not at all! I have always been an Iron Slate. I bet you could find a manufacturing date somewhere if you looked hard enough…”
“Oh.” Valerie seemed a little disappointed, for some unknowable reason.
Dexter was still processing the question, though. “But the way you phrased that question is- absurd! It implies that you are both humans, which is not possible!”
Both the Pokemon flinched.
Dexter halted all other processes and focused on what the subtle movement meant. He scanned through his short-term memory and highlighted what he had just said, discarding what didn’t make sense and came to a conclusion that made even less sense. He stared at the words he had just said, letting most of his processes resume as normal. “Not possible,” he repeated under his breath. “It is not-“
His holographic eyes flicked from Valerie to Gideon, whom were watching him with just the slightest bit of unease to their stances. If he voiced his conclusion, it would be liable to either damage trust, or possibly cause his shutdown, or… any other number of unpleasant thoughts, really. He sighed, dropping the topic for now. He wanted someone who could trust him. Anyone. “Sorry. Got a bit wrapped up in phrasing. Focusing on the wrong things.”
Valerie and Gideon visibly relaxed. “It’s fine,” Valerie said generously. “That happens to Gideon sometimes. He focuses on the exact wrong thing for hours.”
Gideon playfully glared at her. “And how did you come to know that, miss “we can’t remember anything either’?”
Valerie opened her mouth and closed it again. “That’s- a good question, actually.”
Keo poked his head back into the room. “Hey, weirdos. The rain’s beginning to stop if you want to get ready to leave soon. You wanted to head to Mistralton, right?”
Getting Dexter down the ladder was a bit of an ordeal. He was a fair bit heavier than the flight recorder, so Gideon and Valerie had to carefully carry him down, Ninetails watching with professional interest.
“Oh, you managed to turn that thing on!” she exclaimed as they set Dexter down on the dirt floor. “I tried, myself, but it complained about a lack of power before toppling over.”
Dexter considered the Ninetails nervously. She didn’t look hostile, but it was hard to tell. Some kind of neural net was telling him to not trust anyone. “Um, hello.”
Ninetails nodded and smiled at him. “Well met. I’ve seen a few of your kind pass by before. A few even stopped by, and were quite polite. Exploring the world, I believe.” Keo shuddered, but he refrained from saying anything in his mother’s presence.
Valerie perked up with interest. “There’s more of them?”
Ninetails nodded. “All kinds of different androids exist, apparently. I’ve only seen a few, but they vary quite a bit from species to species.”
This information tracked with what Dexter already suspected. He mentally saved the information, hoping that it wouldn’t get corrupted.
“Are you going to take it with you?” Ninetails asked suddenly.
Gideon and Valerie looked blank. “Uhh. Maybe?” Gideon asked. “I mean, he’s still technically your property…”
Ninetails cocked her head. “You were the ones who powered him on, correct? By all means, feel free to take him along.”
The two humans had a whispered conversation for a minute or so before they came to a consensus, Valerie nodding. “Sure! Only if you’re really okay with it.”
“I give you my full blessings,” Ninetails said. She glanced out the window, which was letting in a sunbeam that spilled across the floor. “But first, won’t you have some breakfast?”