Chapter Text
RECALIBRATION FAILURE
Auditory circuits breakdown
Visual processing damaged
Vocalization failure
Recalibrating…
RECALIBRATION FAILURE
Sensory malfunction
Mobility inactive
Mind palace disrupted
Recalibrating…
RECALIBRATION INTERRUPTED
Service connection broken
System cooldown offline
Mobility restarting
Recalibrating…
RECALIBRATION SUCCESSFUL
Core overheat imminent
WARNING
Suggesting immediate system shutdown
Suggestion declined
Pixal woke up.
There was no gasp, no sudden lurching to life. It was as simple as an eye blinking open, and realizing she could not immediately tell where she was.
The reason for this was simple: she was a nindroid, and nindroids did not gasp for air they did not need. And, secondly, it was physically impossible to do so.
Pixal couldn’t move.
That fact was immediately apparent not because of the hundreds of warnings blinking onto her screen, in fact there were so many blaring in bright red it was actively difficult to read just one before another popped up, but because when Pixal realized she didn’t know where she was, she tried to sit up.
And found she physically couldn’t.
That fact, embarrassingly, prevented her from taking a proper scope of her surroundings. It stopped her from analyzing just how poor condition she was in, why everything sounded fuzzy and muffled, why she couldn’t feel a thing, why her depth perception was nonexistent and overall vision was an angry, glitching grayish red, with dark spots showing signs of corruption.
Because Pixal was pragmatic, but she was also, in simple words, alive. And living things had emotions, and these emotions were turning very panicked.
And so it took much, much too long (in reality, it was less than thirty seconds) for Pixal to realize she was not alone.
Her head was tilted back, staring up at something dark. She believed it to be a ceiling, not a night sky, but she couldn’t tell. It was dark, that was all she knew. She believed any other spots that might’ve been stars were actually glitches in her vision.
But there, just at the bottom of her sight line, something moved.
Pixal twitched. Tried to, at least. She felt her head give a tiny jerk, though it was hardly anything, and fifteen more warnings popped up in her vision.
Wires disconnected - immediate fix necessary
Unable to repair synthetics
Servers unresponsive
WARNING
Core overheating - 67%
Cooldown systems offline
Immediate shutdown recommended
Under normal circumstances, Pixal would immediately begin stressing over the current pop-ups in her very poor vision. Unfortunately, this was not a normal circumstance, and the movement at the bottom of her vision was suddenly rising into view.
It was a bird. A large bird? It seemed like a face, but her eyes were broken enough to be lying to her. She knew she thought she saw a beak, and it was much too big for a normal bird.
The beak moved, but she picked up no sound. Something high and clacking, though that could’ve been her processors malfunctioning.
It raised a hand, right in front of her face. It looked like it was snapping its fingers, though the sound didn’t register to Pixal’s ears.
She would’ve flinched away if she could. Be as it may, all she could muster was a slight spasm to one of her left eyes, it seemed her eyelids had been heavily damaged, and a tiny tilt of her head that may have just been caused by harsh wind.
WARNING
Connection failure
Core overheating - 73%
Cooldown systems offline
The bird’s head turned this way and that, and Pixal was aware of a slight jolt to her body only because her head moved. Though she didn’t necessarily feel ‘pain’, nor did Zane to some extent, there was still a sense of touch available to her. It was mildly alarming she felt none of that touch.
Especially not with a core growing that warm.
WARNING
Core overheating - 81%
Cooldown systems offline
Immediate shutdown recommended
The bird’s beak appeared to clack again, something that looked like an arm raising. The other was still below Pixal’s sightline, and she was coherent enough to comprehend that it might be what had jolted her. What was it doing?
Another jolt to her body—and the bird suddenly jerked, something changing as their form hastily moved back, clutching something to their chest. Their hand? Whatever it was, they briefly moved further out of Pixal’s sight line, shaking what she assumed to be their hand after a moment.
Too hot. That was what the gesture meant.
Core overheating - 88%
More alarms were blaring over her vision. She shouldn’t be heating up that fast. Even with her cooling systems down, a simple startup shouldn’t have overheated this quickly. Unless her systems were working overtime, like now, clearly trying to mend itself and stay together with the amount of damage done to it.
But even after that, she should not have overheated this fast. Either something had happened, or the warning signs flickering over her eye were still unable to properly communicate the amount of damage she was suffering.
Or, perhaps, she was panicking more than she realized, and her systems were trying to work overtime in defending itself from something it physically couldn’t stop.
The bird was suddenly back again, moving with more speed. Pixal rolled her head again, instead wincing (which was really just squinting what remained of her singular eyelid) when warnings popped up about wires pulling loose. That was odd. If that were the case, then her head should barely be attached to her body at all. She had quite a lot of metal protecting the wires beneath, and they weren’t tight enough to pull free with as simple a movement as this.
Those hands moved out of Pixal’s immediate sight. Towards her chest. Pixal tried to turn her head again. Her chest compartment—was it open? It had to be, the bird had no reason to be rummaging in that area otherwise. Her chest cavity was open.
And someone was poking around in it.
Pixal’s right shoulder gave a sudden, jerky twitch.
It was more like a spasm, a reaction of some semblance of a move command transferring through her wires, but lacking the command as to where it was meant to move. So instead it jerked, but it caused the bird momentary pause.
She couldn’t tell what its face looked like. Only that it had one.
Core overheating - 93%
Immediate shutdown recommended
She could feel it now. Her sensors were fried, but some part of her could feel the effects of the heat. Her head feeling like it could move too easily, metals and wires at threat of burning away. A shoulder too loose in its socket. At this stage, something was definitely melting.
Something clacked again, and the bird made a quick, sudden movement to her chest, jerking away a moment later, clutching their hand.
Forced shutdown confirmed, pinged an alert, bright and bold, over her eye.
Pending…
Pixal’s head gave a sudden, forward start.
Shit.
Pixal tipped with the force of her head moving, suddenly lurching to the left and sliding down. She was slumped against something, and the bird was looking at her, trying to approach again, as she slid, and all her systems shut themselves down.
Absolutely not.
Pixal tried to move, to twitch, to do anything— she could already see everything closing itself off, everything growing sluggish as she went into a forced shutdown. This, she thought in her frantic state, eye darting around a mile a minute, was far too terrifying than it had any right to be.
The bird was still watching her, and she tried to bare her teeth at it, unsure if her face could even move. She couldn’t tell, she couldn’t feel a thing.
Don’t you dare, she wanted to hiss, the little light in her eye starting to fade, deciding she’d rather have a core meltdown than this. She would not let herself be scrapped again, she would not be the spare parts for someone else's whims, she would not be torn apart—
Forced shutdown complete.
RECALIBRATION FAILURE
Auditory circuits disturbed
Visual processing damaged
Vocalization failure
Recalibrating…
RECALIBRATION INTERRUPTED
Sensory malfunction
Mobility interference
Mind palace disrupted
Recalibrating…
RECALIBRATION SUCCESSFUL
Systems dysfunctional
Cooldown system offline
Restarting recommended
Pixal’s eye snapped open.
She still didn’t know where she was.
Her vision was still corrupted, with no improvements from before. That was the first thing she came to notice, thoughts sluggishly pulling themselves back online.
She always hated shutting down. It wasn’t the same as stasis, or going to ‘sleep’. In those instances, her systems were simply put on hold, mechanics conserving energy to quietly work through any files that may need shuffling or memories placed in new sections. That was ‘sleep,’ but stasis allowed for a quicker regeneration of energy. Not quite turned off, but not fully functional, giving her battery time to regenerate itself.
None of that came with shutting down, except maybe complete battery regeneration. Shutting down was everything possible switched off, and, perhaps, a ‘true’ form of sleeping.
At best, it was impractical, when Pixal lived a life requiring being able to wake up in a five seconds or less. At worst, it made room for situations such as the one she found herself in.
She blinked her eye, fighting against the slow tide, systems slowly flickering to life. Of which numerous sections failed to do so, though she took note that some didn’t appear as critical as before.
Something rumbled.
That caught Pixal’s attention, because that wasn’t what she had been hearing previously. A quick glance—yes, her auditory circuits seemed to be in better shape. Still rather damaged, but now all sound felt like it was distant and under a heavy blanket. Still basically worthless, but better.
This time, she wasn’t facing up. She was slouched to the side, not the same side she tipped when she shut off, she noticed, leaning against something that may have been a table. She was looking out against more darkness, with specks of light. Color was very indiscernible, but it seemed as though she was in a room. If those lights were artificial or windows, she couldn’t tell.
There was a shadow in front of her.
It wasn’t the bird, she registered that immediately. This one seemed featureless to her, but it had a head, and that head suddenly turned to her when her eye began blinking.
It held still for a moment, and Pixal took that moment to check how well she could move. The wires in her neck seemed to be reconnected, and there were a few less warnings about her arms, that was good.
WARNING
Lower sections unresponsive
Files lost
Core overheating - 48%
The figure before her suddenly lurched further away. Pixal reacted with a flinch, head falling back. It still felt off, too much like moving something attached by glue, though it was impossible to tell if it was because of her current state, or her sensors remaining inactive.
The figure turned their head, letting out a yell. Pixal couldn't discern the words, nor could she trust if their voice was really low-pitched or not, but it was loud, and she experimentally twitched her right fingers, finding them slowly coming to life.
Something else sounded off, like a ‘hree’ or ‘oown’, and the figure made a movement like a huff, reaching to Pixal’s left.
Core overheating - 67%
Pixal flicked her fingers again, curling them into a fist. She knew the sudden spike in heat, this time, was due to herself. She could probably punch them. It might give her a few moments. That was all she needed.
The figure was back, reaching towards her chest cavity. She couldn’t tell if they were holding anything.
Pixal jerked.
She discovered that, while her right hand may be active, her right arm was not. And so, all that resulted was her hand spazzing to the left, clinking over each other, and her head making a sudden movement in the same direction.
She got a full view of a face. Still distorted, but it most certainly was not human. That, she trusted.
No human skin was that full of cracks, nor were their eyes that bright.
Core overheating - 52%
She began to tip, and something came out and stopped her. Her head lolled forward before she could stop it, chin on her sternum as she stared straight down.
A hand was holding her upright, stopping her from falling any further. It gave her a visual of her current state, though there wasn’t much to determine with her eye’s ability.
Her chest cavity was, indeed, open. In fact, the hinge for it appeared to be entirely missing. Zane’s hinge was one that opened outwards, despite her insisting it was impractical. Her door was internal, sliding to the side underneath her metallic covering, tucked in a spot clear of any wires or gears.
She could tell, even through the distortion, that it was gone. Or, at the very least, heavily damaged. A shut-down automatically closed all compartments, and a startup wouldn’t open them unless asked to. The fact she could see the hole in her chest, wires bursting free, was deeply concerning.
But there, amongst all the wires, was this figure’s other hand. A hand that was holding something, pressing up to her core.
Core overheating - 45%
It better not be an ice pack. Even through the terror at having a foreign hand amongst her wires, she had the standards to hope it wasn’t an ice pack being held to her very advanced core. Partially because, though much of her was waterproof, putting water directly on her insides was not a great idea. And partially because she felt herself above that.
“...all it,” The figure was saying, she registered, something twisted backwards when it reached her ears, “No…rry…upid…tin.”
Pixal tried to growl. She couldn’t feel any of her face moving. But she tried to, raising her head and trying to conk it against the chin, or even the arm, of whoever was grabbing her.
The top of her head managed to hit something, sending a loud ping through her skull. That she could hear just by being within her own head, an echoing ringing, a familiar sound of metal hitting something way too hard.
Her vision glitched, more warnings popping up. She tried to hiss, jolting her head around, attempting to make a bite towards the figure. Did her mouth even work? She didn’t know.
Loud noises, something crashing, sending her hearing on the fritz as it tried to adjust to the sounds. Her head moved too widely to take anything in, only the figure shoving her, and she went back to her previous position, slouched against the table.
Core overheating - 49%
Another form, maybe it was the bird. Pixal tried to snap, to force her hand up, though her shoulder just twitched like it always did. Her eye whirled around, trying to analyze anything, a way out, a way to–to do something—
“...down…ird…car…sy…”
Don’t touch me, she snarled, or at least, she tried to. A little warning screen reminding her popped up, vocalization failure. She still tried to snap at the hands that moved closer towards her.
Core overheating - 75%
It was a concerning jump, and they most definitely didn’t have a cooling device on her anymore. This was bad in that she could see how fried she was becoming before her very eye. This was good because, as stated, she would much rather melt from an unregulated core over this.
Frantic movement, light flickering as things moved in front of her. There was another pair of hands, and they jerked away when she tried to roll her head at them. Something shoved her back against the wall, and she tried to throw her head down to connect with it.
Clang!
Her vision spun, forehead now resting against the arm holding her back. No, it wasn’t human. Was it gray? It was covered in cracks and lumps, so she thought it probably wasn’t metal. She wanted to believe another nindroid wouldn’t be holding her back.
Forced shutdown confirmed
Pending…
Pixal jerked her head back, wildly darting her eye about the two figures standing over her, their voices mingling into a murmur. Another warning about her core popped up, and she threw it away before she could see it.
Pixal liked to think herself logical. Even when filled with worry, or, in a rare instance of this, fear, she tried to find solutions that would work. She had been designed…she was…
Who designed her?
Her vision started closing off, and she startled. Information forcing in, no, she knew who made her, of course she knew, but who was—
Pixal drew her head back, then, with what little power remaining, she slammed it back down on the hand holding her there.
Clang!
Her vision was nearly black. She lifted her head again.
Clang!
She lifted her head—
A hand grabbed it, fingers curling around her eye.
It was made of stone.
Forced shutdown complete.