#digging out my robotfucking credentials

[evilhasnever]

wip wed (xiyao sci-fi AU)

I was reminded of an angsty Landroid (™️@esmeblaze) drabble that I wanted to write a while ago... It got significantly longer than a drabble overnight, so I guess it’s a wip.

>_

“What happened in Gusu?”

Lan Xichen regards him calmly, his glass eyes opaque in the shade. “I was ordered to leave the battlefield to save myself and the information I carry.” He purses his lips in a most realistic manner. Meng Yao could almost think him a lost young man of flesh and blood if he didn't look too closely. “Leaving… was logical, but it did not seem like the soundest choice at the time. I am still trying to process it.”

Go figure these Lan droids have a moral engine so advanced that they get wrapped up in guilt much like humans do. “I could work out the knots manually,” Meng Yao suggests, daringly. “If you’ll let me… access your code. I understand if that seems–”

“You may.”

“Really? It's just that… you just said you were carrying very important information.”

“If you wanted to copy my data banks you could have already done so when I was offline,” Lan Xichen says simply, “so I see no harm in giving you access now.” 

Without waiting for a response, he folds himself into a kneel in front of his bunk bed, his back to Meng Yao; he tilts his head backwards so his synthetic hair drapes on Meng Yao’s lap like the fabled silk of old, and proffers the port behind his ear to plug into. 

“I cannot guarantee I can do a perfect job,” Meng Yao murmurs, grabbing his gloves and visor. “I am no alliance engineer.” 

“You are all I have,” Lan Xichen says, then adds, after a moment: “And I do not mean that in a disparaging manner. I appreciate anything you can do to get me back into fighting shape.”