The Heart is a Void: Ashes to Ashes

Fahiz hesitated for a moment, seemingly uneasy about the question of these automatons' history. However, he soon recovered, and gave a facetious counter-request.

"I can answer that. However, first, I will ask you a question. You aren't in DeathGang, but you still assist them in doing, so I'm told, 'evil.' So how did you become so evil on your own?"

Crucis laughed. "Surely you jest. Do I need to give a sympathetic backstory every time I use an offensive word as well? I'm told it's also evil. Anyway... It's a simple matter. People actually speaking about evil will amplify the magnitude of the evil by treating it as inexplicable, monstrous, unrelatable, inestimably wicked, even born of the devil, whatever. So that is how one properly becomes evil. But the little imbeciles always want their piece of Heaven — or Hell, as it may be — and will complain that you aren't relatable. Why, of course, it is good not to be an imbecile."

"Don't worry, I jest. I will answer your question, but like a true dilettante I felt it necessary to ask my own first."

"Look, motivations and hopes are just a way that simpletons dress their lives in the fashionable rags of 'meaning,' in truth there is the intellect and everything else is noise. Anyway, go on."

"Alright, so here is my account of things. Adonais is mostly new, and we've told you about Afterglow. However, the other two automatons have all manner of knowledge from before our time, and seem to write often that they were ancient creations. While it's difficult to make out, since they aren't always reliable, we'd guess that they are quite old. We did have to mostly set them up, but we found the raw materials and parts scattered around this house when we took it over from some Pyromancers. It's why we targeted this place, we knew that there was some automaton experimentation going on here."

"I see. Did you change the automatons significantly?"

"They were mostly in disrepair, and basically non-functional. They had been set up in a way that was highly inappropriate for producing text or anything else, as if someone was trying to use them for some ambitious project that never got off the ground. We have managed to get some decent output eventually, and with the experience from that we set up Adonais. I think there might have been a few other models being developed here, but seemingly they often burned down."

"If they were set up in another way, then does that mean that their parts are built to fit together in that way? If so, then even after you rearranged things, couldn't these machines still have something in common with the earlier forms, since they were apparently built around that? It might explain some of their quirks."

"That's true, actually. The automatons' parts are built in a way that hints towards some of the strange ways that the pyromancers set them up, and our rearrangement had to work around that. So it's quite possible that some influence remains from the old structure. Anyway, yes, our attempt to reconstruct these has been slightly difficult, and a few glitches have shown through. Some of these are a hindrance, some are quite charming. Since you were asking about it, Endymion is a bit strange. For instance, it seems to glitch easily when asked to write poetry. In fact, I can show you one of these."

Fahiz drew out a piece of paper from beneath Endymion's still pen. He raised it up for the others to see.

"As you can see, it repeats most of the poem twice. There's some weird text in the middle, and some slightly strange phrasing. It also concerns a long journey. From all of which we can ascertain that it's definitely an Endymion poem."

"Any idea what causes that?" Danemy asked.

"Tell you what, the journey motif is probably because it is trained on plot progressions, so it just spams a journey as a substitute. I'd guess that the quotation at the beginning is also fictitious, Endymion tends to do that as well."

ENDYMION

Holy Pilgrim

"I tread the hero's path, that leads to the gallows." - I. D. Tsarnaev.

'Neath the wan sky, where morning's wraithy light

Gathers and grows across the sad minutes I suffer,

Through the dim woods and by the misty pass,

Along the glen, e'en through the silent ruins,

Down to the base of that far melancholy hill

Above the chill woods and by the moorland's edge,

Ford, with faltering steps, I, as in my dreams,

That night-mare phantasm called the Past.

j̶̺̭̝͌̉̊̾̈́̊͒͆ở̷̧̨͈͈̹̭̖̩̞̦̱̦̣̤͍̺̖̘̪͖̲͔͖͔̩̃̃̌́̃̊͗͂́̍̊̆͑̓̀́̆̀͐̕̚ķ̵̡̢̼̤͎͕̪̻̱͓͙̩͌̈́̐̀̏̎͜ͅͅȇ̶̯̲͕̳̖̞̭̗̰͓̺̞̘̲̪̬̞̩̭̼͓̃̆͌͛̄̈́͐̌̈̕͜͝͝ͅͅŗ̷̛̔̇͛̀̓͆̍͛̃̾͆̎͊̍̉̋͗̉͆̉͒̄̚̕̕͝͝

'Neath the wan sky, where morning's wraithy light

Gathers and grows across the sad minutes I suffer,

Through the dim woods and by the misty pass,

Along the glen, e'en through the silent ruins,

Down to the base of that far melancholy hill

Above the chill woods and by the moorland's edge,

Ford, with faltering steps, I, as in my dreams,

That night-mare phantasm called ALMIGHTY GOD.

Most of the group began to focus on the strange, Zalgo-like text in the middle, which they studied closely to decipher.

"Loki? No, wait. Maybe locket, token?" Danemy speculated.

"Joker!" Vladimir protested.

"Looks like 'joker' to me, like the card," Starfighter added.

"Yeah, probably 'joker,'" Crucis said. "Someone crucified the 'J,' I guess. I quite like it. It has a sense of disruption and immediacy that breaks the serene progression of the poetry around it, a bit like an online 'screamer.' I think this automaton may 'know' what it's doing, in spite of the glitch."

"A screamer is like a grotesque, it appears accompanied with loud noises all of a sudden? I have heard of it," Fahiz said. "There's actually a boss in Area F named the [Aimsa Screamer], that appears on an abandoned temple. But I hear it went missing this morning, there's rumours that it left the Hunting area."

"Interesting. Anyway, yes."

"I see. So would you say that we should try more of these poems?" Fahiz said.

"Worth a try. Attempt fairly harmonious prompts like this, melancholic scenes, the like. See what happens. Maybe it will make up for the Aimsa Screamer's absence."

"Sure. Though absence makes the heart grow fonder. But Endymion probably can't fulfill the role of the Screamer, regardless."

"You'd be surprised. Anyway, it writes interestingly, so by all means keep it. But it's a bit uncanny, isn't it? It weaves all of these plot progressions, these empty dreamscapes, and then places filler people to occupy them. It rushes into motion wildly, leaving all else behind and amorphous. Quite thrilling, in a way. Now, as to Ibis, what can you tell us about it?"

"Yeah, you mentioned that it also writes strange poems," Danemy said. "Maybe it's a bit like this one, it glitches? Because Ibis sounds quite straight-faced normally, it writes formats, Q&As, nothing strange."

"Yeah, it's a bit of a duality," Fahiz said. "Anyway, let's have a look."