Through the heart

[jianai]

[1 - locked to Argos Flight]
[Immediately after the mission ends, someone is checking on VG's downed TSF.

VG himself can see a weird person appearing in the entrance to the cockpit, looking at him with a concerned expression.]

Are you wounded? I know you didn't die, but it'd be a shame if you were hurt because of me.

[2]
[Later, back at Unity Group Bases, someone is making a video introduction.

That someone is an individual with horns and an unchanging smile on their face. Ren switched the old robe to standard, baggy technician overalls. The reason for that is simple: the robe had a gunshot hole at the heart, and was stained with blood - Ren's blood.]

Hello, my name is Ren Ubuntu. I am really grateful for saving those ESUN soldiers. Let me explain. Hmm, where should I start? Ah yes. These...

[Poke at the horns.]

They are real. No, I am not a demon or anything supernatural like that. I am an artificial human-like being, birthed from a cloning pod. I'm afraid that my kin, beings similar to me, are after me. They want to, well, kill me and eat my flesh. I am not too concerned for my own safety, but they started to target people around me as collateral.

So I'm turning to you for help. I know Unity Group is powerful and can defend itself against my kin, and your Commander-in-chief agreed to grant me asylum, at least for a little while. I have a little bit of skills I learnt here and there, so don't worry, I won't be a freeloader. If there is a way I can help you with anything, I will.

This introduction feels... impersonal, but I'll gladly talk to everyone in person. I'd like to get to know all of you better.

I'm sure you are all wonderful people.

[The transmission ends there, but Ren is easy to find in person. They don't exactly blend in with the crowd.]

[3]
Several people have died that night. So many more could've perished, but even that few make me sad. It's a tragedy.

[Ren found the memorial, and puts a lit candle in front of it.]

I know most of them were not members of Unity Group, but I hope it's alright if I remember them this way.

Comments

[jianai]

An amazing group of humans who are no longer with us.

I never met them personally in fact. I was grown in a vat - and when it birthed me, they were no longer among the living.

[delouser]

How interesting. Did they create you for the pleasure of creating a human being with horns?

[jianai]

That'd be surprising. What kind of pleasure would that be?

No, it's rather as I just said, so others immediately recognize me as non-human.

[delouser]

That's what I meant. So they're a bunch of bored scientists creating horned humans for the sake of creating horned humans.

[jianai]

I am afraid boredom was not their motivation.

Rather, this is a way to ensure that I - and everyone else, remember about my kin's inhumaneness. And inferiority.

[delouser]

So you're created to make them feel superior? And I thought my creator was deranged.

[jianai]

Well, despite my appearance, I do try to get along with normal people. This intent was not a successful one.

"Your" creator, you say?

[Ren's curiosity picks up.]

Could you be an artificially created human?

[delouser]

I am an android.

[jianai]

Really? That's so interesting! I never met an android before, so you'll have to excuse my curiosity. I hope it's alright.

What is your name?

[delouser]

I thought with all of your experiences, you'd have met one.

My name is R. Dorothy Waynewright.

[jianai]

It's nice to meet you, Dorothy.

The world is full of unusual and wonderful things. It'd be arrogant of me to say I already saw them all.

[delouser]

I wouldn't know.

[jianai]

Oh? Why not?

[delouser]

You just look like a know it all, that's all.

[jianai]

So that's the impression I give you, Dorothy? That's a new one.

Don't worry, I realize precisely where my knowledge begins and ends.

[That smile does little to dispel the impression.]