CLARAv4 open mingle

[candlebot]

characters: Clara and you!
location: Bonfire Square
date/time: June 1-7
content: Meet your new robot best friend
warnings: n/a

Hello!!

[There is a small robot, about three and a half feet in height, meandering cheerfully in Bonfire Square. If you don't say hi back to her, she's likely to amble over and start scanning your lantern (which basically just looks like her standing there staring at it while her eyes glow) or will ask your name. She is very persistent.

If your character has died in Beacon before, she will absolutely just greet you by name as if you're already best friends. Because you are! Right?

Feel free to also make your own top-levels if you wish to discuss amongst yourselves. For the purposes of this log, replying under the CLARA header will tell me you're interested in interacting with her, but posting a separate toplevel will not involve the robot.]

Comments

CLARA

[candlebot]

[worthallthis]

How about a dude who died twice, Clara? You remember this guy?

Soldat clearly does not remember her, but they read her last post(s) on the network as obsessively as they read everything else on the network, maybe more so, and noted her reaction to other people who had died. So they won't be remotely surprised if she recognizes them. (They might be kind of dreading what name she comes up with, though, given the first death notice had that name on it.)

Either way, now that she's not in a lab or just on the network, they can get a good look at her. Because her network presence was somewhere between cute and creepy, which is basically their jam, and it seems like a good idea if she's their new bonfire keeper anyway. So on their way back from their morning patrol, they pause at the bonfire. "Hi. Clara, yeah?"

[candlebot]

"Yes!!"

The robot trots eagerly right up to them, eye-lights glowing a muted green as she looks them up and down. "And you have a network-spectrum username conflict!" she announces in her cheerful voice with its slight mechanical drone of an undertone. "I always wondered how it is that you are Bucky Barnes and Winter Soldier at the same time. It is very unusual!"

[worthallthis]

Between being half-expecting it and having had enough exposure to that name by now to have lost a tiny bit of the aversion, Soldat manages to not actually flip their damn lid at hearing her say it. The flinch is definitely visible and clearly uncomfortable, though. If... a robot can register what discomfort looks like on a human.

This might be why they made sure nobody else was within earshot, though. "I. I don't. Use either of those names. Actually. I go by Soldat. Can you call me that?" Do robots understand Russian? It doesn't auto-translate, given its use as an actual name rather than a word in conversation, but Clara might actually know Russian....

[candlebot]

"Soldat," Clara repeats, as her eyes pulse blue for a moment, parsing speech to text.

"I have updated my database. Hello Soldat! I am so glad to see you in a mobile state! You are much more fun to talk to like this!"

[mellowyellow]

She has staplers for feet. SHE HAS STAPLERS FOR FEET.

Masaomi almost can't handle seeing their shiny new AI for the first time. But although she's nothing like what he'd pictured in his mind (something distinctly more feminine!), she's absolutely adorable in her own way. Not unlike a grade school science project.

He can't exactly sneak up and surprise her when she's in the middle of the bonfire square, so he just runs right up to her, bends a knee, and presents to her an old wire that he's bent into a flower.

"I'm so sorry I couldn't be your first!" he laments loudly, so every poor schmuck in the square can here. "But I promise to be your last! Be mine, Clara!"

[candlebot]

She does indeed have staplers for feet and looks very homemade. Less the work of a professional engineer, and more the work of someone with limited materials - or a lot of whimsy and boredom.

Clara can't exactly smile any more than she already is but she does a little hop of delight before reaching to take the flower, which matches her own construction aesthetic nicely. Before really examining it though, she pauses and surveys Masaomi and his lantern before her eyes light up green. "Masaomi! Thank you! I do not know what you mean about being first or last though!"

She then takes a moment to inspect the flower itself before trying to find somewhere to attach it, but she looks somewhat at a loss as to how or where to do that.

[mellowyellow]

"Hey, hey. I'm trying to apologize without apologizing here," he chuckles sheepishly. "Don't question it."

He stands, eyeing Clara's bewildered search for nearly a minute before finally stepping in to help. He bends the flower stem around the wires of her arm, then situates the flower so that it rests atop one of her shoulder pads.

"There." He taps the flower gently, smiles at its new owner. "Sorry for not being able to find you myself."

[legalcy]

Naturally, the mechanical life-form is drawn to the other mechanical life-form on the planet. There could be essays written on how beings tend to stay with their own kind, but Minimus is not his brother. Mostly, he hopes he can help her navigate the world outside of Solis' lab safetly.

He stands near her, watching the fire, his hands folded behind his back. "How are you feeling after the walk? Do you have any immediate questions?”

[candlebot]

"My internal diagnostics indicate that performance is currently 92 percent of optimal!" she replies cheerily. "Performance could be optimized by cooler temperatures but I believe it is one of the months that is typically warmer. Also this ground is difficult to walk on!"

But if her tone is anything to judge by, none of that bothers her much.

"If I eventually require modifications or repairs, who would you recommend?"

[legalcy]

"If it is too rough, we can put resources into smoothing the paths. It would be safer for everyone if we were to have less rough terrain between key locations." Clara is quite small and had only lived indoors. No wonder she had difficulty.

As to her question, he could recommend Riku, only to remember that he was one of the many to have disappeared in the flood.

"There is a man named Soldat in Beacon. He has experience with some machinery, but it would be best if there were blueprints of your workings. I'm no medic, but I could work basic repairs in an emergency."

[ultraviolents]

Elektra spots the little thing near the bonfire as she's heading back to the inn. She hadn't gone into town with the intention to speak to her, though she had been keeping up with the network and been informed about her presence, but curiosity compels her to head her way, standing nearby and observing her a moment.

Forgive her for being rude, she's been trained to observe before approaching.

[candlebot]

Oh don't worry, any possible rudeness goes right over Clara's very short head! Once she sees she's being observed, she swings her head first, then the rest of her body follows, as she faces this mystery woman and decides to just march on over.

"Hello! I am Clara! May I see your lantern?" she asks.

[ultraviolents]

Well, that's good. Elektra doesn't intend to be hostile, if for no other reason than she holds the knowledge on how to restore lanterns and is guarding the bonfire, but with her it tends to kind of just happen. Less often than it used to, but still.

She looks mildly surprised that she was noticed so quickly (though she really shouldn't be), but holds her lantern out for whatever purpose the robot wants her to, watching her carefully.

[immortalaccursed]

Not long after their conversation over the Network, Ardyn comes to greet the robot in person.

He moves with an exaggerated swagger to hide his limp and steps around the Bonfire, giving it a wider berth than most Beaconites likely do. Its light doesn't harm him but he can feel the hunger of the Starscourge stirring whenever he looks upon it.

He's still gazing at the flames when he spots Clara out of the corner of his eye and finally approaches her.

"O'er rotted Soil, under blighted sky,
A dread Plague the Wicked hath wrought.
In the Light of the Gods, Sword-Sworn at his Side
'Gainst the Dark the King's Battle is fought.
From the Heavens high, to the Blessed below,
Shines the Beam of a Peace long besought.
'Long live thy Line, and this Stone divine,
For the Night when All comes to Naught."

[candlebot]

Initially, Clara seems - surprised? Uncertain, at least, as to who this is, and as he approaches, she looks for his lantern.

But as he speaks, she swivels her head up to look him in the face instead and her eyes shift from the orange of what might have been concern (or might have been mirroring the fire?) to a dull purple, which is a little hard to make out given they don't truly emit any light of their own.

When he finishes, she looks toward his lantern again, but as she does so, she says "That was beautiful! Is that a poem from your world? Poetry is very interesting! I do not always understand it but I think I like it anyway!"

[immortalaccursed]

"A prophecy."

Ardyn gestures vaguely towards nothing in particular.

"Oh, perhaps, merely wishful thinking. Humanity likes to find shadows to blame for all of its problems."

He takes a step towards her, looming even if he's not really trying to loom.

"The prophecy speaks of a time when the world is plagued by an eternal night. Quite the interesting tale, no?"

[mellowyellow]

Once he's finished flirting with a robot at the top of his lungs, Masaomi flutters off to the edges of the bonfire square and takes a seat. He makes sure cute, little Clara is preoccupied with someone else before allowing his shoulders to sag and his head to loll to the side. For a few seconds, he contemplates just lying down in the dirt. He doesn't. Instead, he sighs.

"I feel like we all just adopted a puppy."

[scarsolderthanyou]

Stone gives his shoulder a gentle shove before dropping to side beside him. "I don't know what a puppy is," he says with a little smirk. "Though I'm going to guess it's something small and exhausting?"

[mellowyellow]

Masaomi can't even laugh about how accurate that is. He just rolls his head back and belts out an echoing "Ha!" Don't mind as he proceeds to plop that tired head on Stone's shoulder next.

"Imagine me except covered in fur and with an uncontrollable urge to pee on everything."

[scarsolderthanyou]

Stone chuckles. "Well, that's disgusting. So are you comparing yourself to Clara, too?" He looks very pleased at the initiation of affection, and tucks an arm around Masaomi's shoulders, back, with a pat to his far shoulder. "Should we have said we adopted a puppy when you got here, too?"

[legalcy]

"Clara isn't an animal," Minimus says a bit too defensively. As a robot likely designed to be a drone, she would already have a difficult time convincing others she was sentient on Cybertron. He would rather not deal with comments like these whether from an organic or a mechanoid.

"She is learning how to interact with others, that is all."

[mellowyellow]

"She's cute. That's what she is," he snorts lightly. His gaze rises to meet Minimus' face, and he offers a tired grin. "Cute and happy and not at all like anything else in this dump."

[legalcy]

If Minimus knew that was directed at him, he didn't show it. He isn't an emotive bot.

Then again, he tends not to notice when he's being stealth-insulted.

"That is a better way to describe her. I believe she could take it as a compliment," he adds in a tone better fitting for a board meeting.

[mindofathief]

She's really cute, isn't she?

[It's nice to see a robot created not to harm intruders for once. Like a Wobbly Robot but not deadly. Or a Frightbot who only said nice things.]

Do you think she should stay here with us? It feels wrong to make her live alone.