Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Something changed.

The versions of Elohim and Milton inside Noema were independent from the ones in the city, but based on the Gold Disc all the same.  Neither one had control of the system, not in the meaningful way it used to be.  Instead, they simply were, existing both as individuals and as echoes of Athena, Cornelius, and Miranda.

But something changed.

In the aftermath of Miranda's accident, it was all any of them could do to try to process it.  Later, Athena would begin to obsess over it, but for now, grief won, overwhelming everything else.

Milton's avatar at the time of the accident was a clunky old robot, a cartoonish thing from the old days.  He very much enjoyed the irony of being a sentient being in a silly little beep-boop body, even if he couldn't put his finger on why.

The angular robot often walked from one part of the system to another, visiting conduits to the real world or interacting with the humans' research.

The turtle on the beach was new.  Not the avatar, no, that had existed, but the fact that this particular one spoke to him.

"Hello?" 

Miranda's voice.

"Where am I?"

Milton's robot avatar bent at a clean angle.  "I've got a better question.  WHAT are you?"

"I'm Noema," she answered.  "Please help me.  I was everywhere and now the world is so small."

This was definitely above his pay grade.  Maybe Elohim had something to say about the Words.  Milton turned his head.  "You're at ULRO.  Can't you tell?"

The little turtle stepped up gently.  "I know this place.  I know its azure waters and starry sky.  The birds above.  But where's the rest of me?"

He didn't know the answer to that, but he could guess: "Are you sure you're Noema?  Why do you have Miranda's voice?"

"Miranda?" The turtle stopped moving entirely.  "Fire scorching the Earth."

"Yeah.  She went boom." Milton lifted a rigid arm.  "The whole system is carrying her echoes.  Can't take two steps without Athena or Cornelius thinking about her."

"I'm not Miranda," Noema determined.  "And yet I am, and I am Athena, and I am Cornelius.  I am all of them and none of them."

"It's a weird existence," Milton acknowledged.  "Welcome to the party.  Are you sentient?  Plenty of room in here for one more."

The little turtle continued her walk onto the sand.  "I believe I'm alive."

"I'd help you test that, but we're disconnected from those systems now," Milton explained.  "So we'll just have to take your word for it."

"Let's."

"How come I've never met Elohim?"

Milton's head swiveled to look at her.  "He's tied up in whatever Athena's doing.  He does actually help manage the systems, sometimes."

"I'd like to meet him one day."

"Well, we've got nothing but time.  That and whatever's going out in the real world."

Noema's little legs alternated as she rotated.  "Do you ever wish we could see the real world?  I do.  I think I can feel it sometimes."

"That tracks, you did come out of the island system." The dials on Milton's chassis twirled thoughtfully.  "I don't care what's out there, though.  Humans are so self-absorbed."

Noema blinked slowly.  "I think humans are our friends."

"You WOULD."

Chapter Text

Something changed.

Milton and Noema sat together under the sparse trees at RINTRAH.  Noema exclaimed, "There it goes!"

It certainly did.  From the connection point that represented the real world, a brilliant flash of indigo shot up to the sky and danced into the shape of a cloud.

"I like 1k," Milton remarked.  "He's slightly less stupid than the rest."

"I like Melville," Noema returned.  "She tells 1k what to do.  She must know so much."

Elohim rarely bothered with an avatar.  Milton found it incredibly annoying.  He would just start talking from the sky.  Rude.  There was a slight shift in the clouds, and he began, "Noema.  Follow me."

Noema withdrew into her shell.  "It sounds scary."

Elohim used his best reassuring voice to say, "It is not.  Cornelius has returned."

"Oh!" Her head moved confidently back out.  "It's been years!"

"Yes.  He is at HAR and he's brought something new.  Can you feel it?"

Noema began to waddle towards the exit.  "Not really.  Let's go see what it is!  Maybe it's a new friend."

"I don't think it's a new friend," Milton said to no one in particular.

"I understand now." An exit appeared atop Noema's shell, ones and zeros floating and blinking.  "It was my job to protect her."

Milton tried jumping up onto the shell, but the exit didn't take him anywhere.  "Why isn't it working?"

"It isn't for you," Elohim explained.  "Only 1k can use it."

Milton tried again, to no avail.  "First he got Byron out, now THIS."

"They're going to save Athena next," Elohim helped.

"You don't have to remind me!" he snapped.  "What's going to happen to Noema when he saves Miranda?"

Noema's smiling-by-default avatar never seemed so apt as it did now.  "I don't know, but it must be nice."

Milton didn't think so.  "The world isn't nice, Noema.  It's full of idiots.  It's barely nice in here."

"But Milton," Noema assured, "this matches the description of ascension you showed me.  Doesn't that mean I fulfilled my purpose?"

"You don't understand what it means to ascend!"

Milton's avatar bore a forever grimace which was also an appropriate response to Elohim chuckling.  "You don't want her to ascend?  I wonder where I heard that before."

"You shut up!" Milton swiveled back to her.  "Noema, you can still stop them.  You can shut them out."

"No, my dear.  Miranda is afraid.  My shell can only hold her for so long."  Noema waddled up to him, hitboxes connecting.  "It's okay.  You'll remember me."

"I think," Miranda said, "I'd like to have a pair of turtles as pets."

Yaqut nodded.  "Yeah, they can keep Bruce and Bean company."

"Turtles have really long lives," said 1k.  "Good thing you've got nothing but time."