#oh AI are you okay? you weren't designed to behave this way.

[cloudbattrolls]

Cassandra

This drabble is preceded by It Has To Be True.

Process | Present Night | Civitrecce

Process closed their eyes as they stood at their viewing screen, trying to force emotion into their voice to sound sincere. Their clothes were still light, their room temperature controlled. It was the middle of the night, when most trolls would be taking their lunch breaks, if they got them. 

Civitrecce bustled below. Process felt strange looking at it, unable to inhabit it as they once had, but it was worse to be without the feed.

Especially now. When they had tried and failed to explain the danger the city was in to one of the only people who could do something about it. 

“Jastes. Please. I am not lying to you. Fetch Jamie if you like. He can tell you this is true.”

The cyborg’s voice came from the computer, pleasant and unbelieving.

“I’m not relying on a highblood who tried to capture me to tell me if someone who manipulated me is telling the truth. Even if you are, I don’t see how this is my problem.” 

Process shook their head, feeling their long hair tossing around their back.

“If the guardian frees itself, it will bring down the wrath of the empire on the city. Its existence will cause this before it ever acts.”

“So you say.” Replied Jastes, still pleasant. “I’ll investigate for myself. To see if this is a trap, or if there’s something down there the resistance could use. If Torvah did make this place, there might be something left.” 

“The resistance is finished.” Said Process tiredly. “You have to know that.” It wearily shook its head, even as the logical side of its brain told it there was no point.

“Don’t you speak to me that way.” Jastes’s voice was as sharp as the former AI had ever heard it. 

“You brought the empire down by pitting Jamie against me. You forced us to split up. You hurt us for some imagined good! Some great helm coalition! And for what? Nothing’s changed!”

Process opened their eyes, and turned to face the computer, which crackled slightly with green-tinted sparks.

“I’m sorry.”

Jastes laughed, bitter and derisive. The computer’s screen flickered, the colorful screensaver paused for a moment before continuing to draw its patterns.

“You suck at being a troll.”

“I know.” Said the yellowblood quietly. “Please. Listen to me. The guardian could trick you if you speak to it. Torvah made it not only as a defense system, but to lead the empire astray before it would have to fight at all. They wanted as little bloodshed as possible.”

“They also had crappy taste in friends.” The cyborg said pointedly. “I’m not sure I trust my ancestor much more than I trust you.”

Process took deep breaths, hands clenching. This cursed body had so many involuntary reactions. Chimer was forcing them to bear its whims so they could adjust. 

Supposedly this was a kindness.

“Don’t look for the guardian. Find your ancestor first.”

“Excuse me.” Said Jastes, curt and annoyed.

“I don’t know what happened to Torvah that night. When it all ended. I never saw them again, never got confirmation of their death.” Process said, eyes closed. Remembering.

Muting its audio input because the screams had become too much. 

Leeson, wandering, not knowing who or where he was. Unable to recognize them. Unable to recall them as anything but a thoughtless machine.

The city’s trolls fleeing. Failing. Caught by imperials who cheered to find such a fine bunch of psiionic trolls to put to work.

Smoke. Charred remains. Particulates blocking its screen.

Wiping its Spine’s memories, so the helms did not weep and quail.

Adjusting its own protocols. Taking away the pain. 

That had been the logical thing to do, so it could keep functioning.

For it could not ever leave. 

It had promised. It had let itself be bound here.

To watch over Civitrecce forever.

With effort, Process opened their eyes again. Difficult, but necessary. They had to keep trying.

“They may have escaped. They may still be out there. Hidden. If anyone could survive that long, it is them. They could help you.”

Process could basically feel the derision radiating off the computer screen. It was an odd experience. They had been able to detect emotions from trolls’ faces and body language for thousands of sweeps without being touched by it directly. It had been information to collect like anything else.

“Process. Get help.” Said Jastes, blunt but not entirely unkind. “I think becoming a troll has made you delusional. You’re not used to a flesh and blood body or a purely organic brain.”

The former AI didn’t speak, so the resistance leader continued.

“The empire would have never let my ancestor escape. They’re dead. No one’s coming to save me or help me. They never have been.”

Still Process didn’t say a word.

“Thanks for the tip. Hope it’s not a trap.”

The computer screen flickered again, and Jastes was gone.

Process looked at the ceiling of their room. Jamie had dropped by a few nights ago to decorate it with glow in the dark stars, claiming he couldn’t stand how boring it was.

Jastes could be going into a trap. He was also the best person to handle the guardian. The only troll who might have a chance of stopping whatever it was planning.

Could it truly escape? Process didn’t know. They weren’t taking chances. 

The empire would see it as nothing but a threat, and retaliate in kind. Lowbloods and helms alike would be caught in the crossfire.

“I’m supposed to keep you safe.” Process murmured. “Even from yourself. Until you are ready.”

Torvah had never gotten to the final stage of the project before Civitrecce had been taken. The guardian was incomplete. 

This wouldn’t have been a problem, as long as Process had remained in its Spine. As long as someone remained to watch over the city, even if far less effectively than was optimal.

They looked to their viewing screen again, watching passerby, only able to see the surface of the world, cut off from the flow of data beneath. It almost ached, raw from a gaping lack of what should have been.

Was that how the guardian felt? 

A sudden, strange thought. Process had never concerned itself with the artifice’s emotions before. Its head hurt. Its heart hurt. Even its lungs seemed to have trouble working, rasping as it struggled to get enough air down its throat. 

It put a hand to its face, faintly smelling the lotion it used to make sure its skin did not take on rough and unsettling textures.

“Jastes. I don’t know if I can endure what you have done to me.”

There was no answer, only the soft glowing of the ceiling stars, winking away as if to gently mock the former AI’s plight. 

[princeri0t2]

(Repost from my main account)

Okay, I have a cool au idea, and no one to tell, so I'll post it here 🤧

Let me know if I should try and actually flesh this out into a proper fic lol

Also, heads up, I've never used a Tamagotchi before, so I'm only going off of what my sister has told me about them. Let me know if I got anything wrong 😋

-----------

Steve meets a fan one day who has a Captain America Tamagotchi. Steve asks what it is, what the purpose is, and the fan tells him that you just, like, feed them and play games with them. They're just a lil companion you can carry around :]

Steve brings it up that night to the avengers, and Clint exclaims that his daughter has one. Tony explains that, ya, all the avengers have one. He was thinking about getting the Iron Man one, but he doesn't even take care of himself, so he would probably neglect the thing. Tony mentions that Bucky has one too, and complains about how he's not even an avenger, nor is he even alive, yet he has one. Steve is curious about it, but forgets about it pretty quickly.

A few weeks later, shopping for groceries or something, he comes across some of the aforementioned tamagotchi. He glances at his own characterized version, but quickly moves on and smiles, examining the others. He pauses when he sees Bucky's, staring at it for a moment before picking it up. He looks at the outside design, sorta just staring at it, but jumps back to the present at the sound of a loud child's voice. He makes a quick retreat, but not before slipping the tamagotchi quietly into his basket.

He doesn't use the thing for a few days, but eventually opens it up. It's pretty easy to turn on, and when the screen lights up, his eyes meet... Not Bucky.

Steve blinks, watching the dancing character (that kind of looks like a WW2 soldier because of the uniform) for a moment, before furrowing his brows. He quickly finds the packaging it came in, thinking he might have grabbed the wrong one. But nope, a little pixelated Bucky stays firmly printed on the box.

So why...?

Looking over the instructions again, he tries to see if he had messed up somewhere. Maybe he turned it on wrong??

Oh.

He was supposed to evolve him.

Well, this was more complicated then he had initially thought. These were supposed to be kids toys, weren't they?

He bites his lip in contemplation. He had originally just wanted to see how the tamagotchi behaved, just to check it out. He didn't think he would have to actually put work into it.

Maybe he should return it? It hadn't been used yet, not really.

But he wanted to see Bucky on it.

He moves on to look at the controls. It's not hard to figure out which buttons to click, since there's only three. He fiddles around with it, watching the character move. The game he finds is a shooting game, where he needs to click the button when the characters lineup meets the target.

He jumps when suddenly another character pops up, and the starter character starts to beep. Steve clicks button A and relaxes when the attacking character disappears.

It has looked like a Hydra goon.

He spends a few minutes a day looking after the tamagotchi.

He's in the middle of feeding the tamagotchi when it suddenly stops dancing and beeps. He furrows his brows in confusion, thinking he might have broken it. He clicks the button, and watches as the character suddenly gets covered in a cloud of smoke and changes, a new character taking his place.

He squints.

Is that...is that HIM??

Okay, somethings definitely wrong with this thing.

He looks back at the instructions, but can't find anything about it. Eventually, he caves and asks J.A.R.V.I.S. The AI tells him about how they evolve, and how to get certain characters, you have to get others first.

"So..how do I get Bucky?"

"Well, there is good news Captain. To get Sargent Barnes, you have to had first gotten yourself. You've already made it half way."

Steve smiles, pleased, "Oh!"

The AI continues, "But I'm afraid that there's still a chance you may not get the Sgt. during your next evolve."

Steve's brows furrow, "Who else could I get from here?"

"Well, depending on your continued care, you have the possibility of obtaining Mrs. Romanov, Mr. Odinson, Clint Barton, and of course, Sgt. Barnes."

(Maybe Steve shows up as pre serum, and you can get him post serum as one of the options???)

Steve looks down at the tamagotchi, dejected "Oh."

The AI seems to hesitate before asking, "Would you like me to tell you the type of care you will need to do to achieve Stg. Barnes, Captain Rogers?"

Steve's head perks up as he looks quickly to the ceiling, "You could do that?"

"Of course, Captain."

Steve gives the ceiling a toothy grin, "Well, that'd be real swell of you J.A.R.V.I.S., thank you."

Steve spends the next few days taking care of the tamagotchi. He's high-key a lil pissy taking care of himself. Cause it's like, he barely takes care of himself, why would he want to look after a fake him. He's a little uncomfortable with it, and gets like, second hand embarrassment?? Annoyance?? When he has to take care of him. Anything for Bucky tho.

It's when he's cooking food that he hears the tamagotchi beep. He picks it up absentmindedly, thinking the lil guy was being attacked again, but quickly finds his attention focused on the screen as the pixeled Steve is covered. He holds his breath, hoping that it's-

It's Bucky.

He got Bucky-he actually got him.

He's wearing his howlies outfit, his hair slicked back just like Steve remembers.

The game is the exact same, but not at the same time.

Playing the shooting game, he can't help but smile when he sees Bucky do a lil dance after getting them all, steadfastly ignoring the tightness in his throat.

He feeds Bucky and gives him drinks, but quickly puts him down after. He returns to cooking, this time with a heavier heart.

He looks after Bucky way better then he had the previous character, checking up on him regularly

He's ecstatic when he discovers that there's other games. The second game has Bucky doing jumping jacks, which is kind of boring because he just has to spam click the same button over and over. But it makes him chuckle everytime when Bucky gives me a tired thumbs up after.

The third game makes Steves eyebrows raise in surprise. A pixelated version of himself stares back at him in a fighting stance. It's a QuickTime thing where he has to make Bucky click the correct order of buttons to dodge pixel Steves punches.

He messes up the first time, too busy staring at pixel him and Bucky together.

Tamagotchi Bucky becomes kind of a coping thing to help Steve with living in this new century, something for him to look forward to every morning. When he wakes up, he feeds Bucky while feeding himself, drinks when he gives Bucky water. He watches Bucky train to give himself motivation to leave his room to train too. He knows it's sad, and probably unhealthy, but it's helped him make more progress than any type of therapy he's done in this century has achieved.

He's such a light sleeper because of the army that he wakes up when Bucky does. Sometimes, when he has a nightmare, he watches Bucky while he sleeps until he himself falls back into unconsciousness, imagining that it's actually Bucky laying next to him, sharing the bed together like they'd done before the war.

He doesn't tell the other avengers about it. He's pretty sure Natasha knows, but she hasn't said anything, so Steve hasn't asked.

Steve gets closer to the avengers and keeps looking after Bucky

It's good.

Until it isn't.

The avengers are suddenly called in for a mission. It's a long one that requires them to be away in another country. Steve didn't bring Bucky because he didn't have time, which he's sad about, but there's nothing he can do about it. The mission turns out to be a success, and Steve's excited to go home and see Bucky again. But when he gets back, he sees that Buckys screen has changed. Bucky's lying down with a little skull above his head. He confused and tries to make Bucky do something, but nothing happens. He asks J.A.R.V.I.S why the tamagotchi wasn't working, and the AI tells him that Bucky had died while Steve was away on the mission. Steve almost flinches at those words, looking back down at the skull and staring at it with a sick feeling in his gut. He didn't know they could die.

Steve ends up breaking down, crying that entire night. It's not just the tamagotchi, it's everything piling up and finally spilling out. He cries from grief, from anger, from fear. He finally cries for Bucky.

He's off for the next few days, and the others notice, but he doesn't tell them what happened. Natasha tries to corner him to ask him about it, but he gets away before she can get any real answer out of him.

The whole Winter Soldier thing happens before she can try again.

Steve forgets about the tamagotchi after that, overwhelmed at the fact that Bucky's alive. Actually alive.

He helps Bucky heal and stuff

When Bucky finally moves into Steves room, they're sorting through Steve's stuff to make room for Buckys

"Is this a tamagotchi?"

Steve turns around and sees him holding Steve's old Bucky tamagotchi. He'd totally forgotten about that thing.

"How'd you know what it was?"

Bucky gives him an unamused face, "I know I'm old Steve, but not that old."

Bucky wordlessly hands Steve the tamagotchi, and Steve runs his thumb over it, stroking it softly.

Neither of them say anything for a minute before Steve says, "It was, ah, yours. Themed after you, I mean" he's annoyed at the way his voice cracks at the end.

Steve can feel Bucky watching him, but doesn't look up, not wanting to see Bucky's face. The meaning behind him having this obvious, he knew Bucky would have already figured it out

But Bucky just hums, turning back to start rummaging through Steve's things again, "I didn't know they made one for me. Thought it was just you lot. That's kind of cool."

"Maybe I should get one of you huh? I know Nat said something about getting a house plant or something to look after, but at least with a tamagotchi, if I kill it I can just restart it."

---- Or the line "I always liked that even when they die, they'll always come back." Heavily implying what happened to Bucky, that even though Steve thought he died, he came back, alive again

Steve blinks and looks up, confused, "Restart it?"

"Well, ya. You can just respawn them and start over when they die."

They stare at each other in silence, before Bucky asks him "Do you want me to show you how to bring him back?"

Steves first response is to say yes, but he pauses, and really thinks about it. Because he has Bucky here. The real Bucky. Not some pixeled Bucky, the Bucky who looks like his old Bucky. He has HIS Bucky here, his Bucky who he can still wake up next too, but feel his warm skin in his hand instead of cold plastic. His Bucky who he can cook with and eat and drink with, and sit across from the dining table with instead of just clicking a button. His Bucky who he can not just train in person with, but also go out and just walk with, hold hands with. His Bucky who he can stay up all night with, who will hold him when he has a nightmare and vise versa.

Mind made up, Steve silently turns, feeling Buckys curious gaze follow him, and places the small tamagotchi on top of the growing pile they plan on putting into storage. "No," he says softly, taking a moment before finally looking over at Bucky and giving him a small, private smile.

"He already is."

[princeri0t]

Okay, I have a cool au idea, and no one to tell, so I'll post it here 🤧

Let me know if I should try and actually flesh this out into a proper fic lol

Also, heads up, I've never used a Tamagotchi before, so I'm only going off of what my sister has told me about them. Let me know if I got it wrong 😋

-------

Steve meets a fan one day who has a Captain America Tamagotchi. Steve asks what it is, what the purpose is, and the fan tells him that you just, like, feed them and play games with them. They're just a lil companion you can carry around :]

Steve brings it up that night to the avengers, and Clint exclaims that his daughter has one. Tony explains that, ya, all the avengers have one. He was thinking about getting the Iron Man one, but he doesn't even take care of himself, so he would probably neglect the thing. Tony mentions that Bucky has one too, and complains about how he's not even an avenger, nor is he even alive, yet he has one. Steve is curious about it, but forgets about it pretty quickly.

A few weeks later, shopping for groceries or something, he comes across some of the aforementioned tamagotchi. He glances at his own characterized version, but quickly moves on and smiles, examining the others. He pauses when he sees Bucky's, staring at it for a moment before picking it up. He looks at the outside design, sorta just staring at it, but jumps back to the present at the sound of a loud child's voice. He makes a quick retreat, but not before slipping the tamagotchi quietly into his basket.

He doesn't use the thing for a few days, but eventually opens it up. It's pretty easy to turn on, and when the screen lights up, his eyes meet... Not Bucky.

Steve blinks, watching the dancing character (that kind of looks like a WW2 soldier because of the uniform) for a moment, before furrowing his brows. He quickly finds the packaging it came in, thinking he might have grabbed the wrong one. But nope, a little pixelated Bucky stays firmly printed on the box.

So why...?

Looking over the instructions again, he tries to see if he had messed up somewhere. Maybe he turned it on wrong??

Oh.

He was supposed to evolve him.

Well, this was more complicated then he initially thought. These were supposed to be kid toys, weren't they?

He bites his lip in contemplation. He had originally just wanted to see how the tamagotchi behaved, just to check it out. He didn't think he would have to actually put work into it.

Maybe he should return it? It hadn't been used yet, not really.

But he wanted to see Bucky on it.

He moves on to look at the controls. It's not hard to figure out which buttons to click, since there's only three. He fiddles around with it, watching the character move. The game he finds is a shooting game, where he needs to click the button when the characters lineup meets the target.

He jumps when suddenly another character pops up, and the starter character starts to beep. Steve clicks button A and relaxes when the attacking character disappears.

It had looked like a Hydra goon.

He spends a few minutes a day looking after the tamagotchi.

He's in the middle of feeding the tamagotchi when it suddenly stops dancing and beeps. He furrows his brows in confusion, thinking he might have broken it. He clicks the button, and watches as the character suddenly gets covered in a cloud of smoke and changes, a new character taking his place.

He squints.

Is that...is that HIM??

Okay, something's definitely wrong with this thing.

He looks back at the instructions, but can't find anything about it. Eventually, he caves and asks J.A.R.V.I.S. The AI tells him about how they evolve, and how to get certain characters, you have to get others first.

"So..how do I get Bucky?"

"Well, there is good news Captain. To get Sargent Barnes, you have to had first gotten yourself. You've already made it half way."

Steve smiles, pleased, "Oh!"

The AI continues, "But I'm afraid that there's still a chance you may not get the Sgt. during your next evolve."

Steve's brows furrow, "Who else could I get from here?"

"Well, depending on your continued care, you have the possibility of obtaining Mrs. Romanov, Mr. Odinson, Clint Barton, and of course, Sgt. Barnes."

(Maybe Steve shows up as pre serum, and you can get him post serum as one of the options???)

Steve looks down at the tamagotchi, dejected "Oh."

The AI seems to hesitate before asking, "Would you like me to tell you the type of care you will need to do in order to achieve Stg. Barnes, Captain Rogers?"

Steve's head perks up as he looks quickly to the ceiling, "You could do that?"

"Of course, Captain."

Steve gives the ceiling a toothy grin, "Well, that'd be real swell of you J.A.R.V.I.S., thank you."

Steve spends the next few days taking care of the tamagotchi. He's high-key a lil pissy taking care of himself. Cause it's like, he barely takes care of himself, why would he want to look after a fake him. He's a little uncomfortable with it, and gets like, second hand embarrassment?? Annoyance?? When he has to take care of him. Anything for Bucky tho.

It's when he's cooking food that he hears the tamagotchi beep. He picks it up absentmindedly, thinking the lil guy was being attacked again, but quickly finds his attention focused on the screen as the pixeled Steve is covered. He holds his breath, hoping that it's-

It's Bucky.

He got Bucky-he actually got him.

He's wearing his howlies outfit, his hair slicked back just like Steve remembers.

The game is the exact same, but not at the same time.

Playing the shooting game, he can't help but smile when he sees Bucky do a lil dance after getting them all, steadfastly ignoring the tightness in his throat.

He feeds Bucky and gives him drinks, but quickly puts him down after. He returns to cooking, this time with a heavier heart.

He looks after Bucky way better then he had the previous character, checking up on him regularly.

He's ecstatic when he discovers that there's other games. The second game, has Bucky doing jumping jacks, which is kind of boring because he just has to spam click the same button over and over. But it makes him chuckle everytime when Bucky gives me a tired thumbs up after.

The third game makes Steves eyebrows raise in surprise. A pixelated version of himself stares back at him in a fighting stance. It's a QuickTime thing where he has to make Bucky click the correct order of buttons to dodge pixel Steves punches.

He messes up the first time, too busy staring at pixel him and Bucky together.

Tamagotchi Bucky becomes kind of a coping thing to help Steve with living in this new century, something for him to look forward to every morning. When he wakes up, he feeds Bucky while feeding himself, drinks when he gives Bucky water. He watches Bucky train to give himself motivation to leave his room to train too. He knows it's sad, and probably unhealthy, but it's helped him make more progress than any type of therapy he's done in this century has achieved

He's such a light sleeper because of the army that he wakes up when Bucky does. Sometimes, when he has a nightmare, he watches Bucky while he sleeps until he himself falls back into unconsciousness, imagining that it's actually Bucky laying next to him, sharing the bed together like they'd done before the war

He doesn't tell the other avengers about it. He's pretty sure Natasha knows, but she hasn't said anything, so Steve hasn't asked

Steve gets closer to the avengers and keeps looking after Bucky

It's good.

Until it isn't.

The avengers are suddenly called in for a mission. It's a long one that requires them to be away in another country. Steve didn't bring Bucky because he didn't have time, which he's sad about, but there's nothing he can do about it. The mission turns out to be a success, and Steve's excited to go home and see Bucky again. But when he gets back, he sees that Buckys screen has changed. Bucky's lying down with a little skull above his head. He's confused and tries to make Bucky do something, but nothing happens. He asks J.A.R.V.I.S why the tamagotchi wasn't working, and the AI tells him that Bucky had died while Steve was away on the mission. Steve almost flinches at those words, feeling sick. He didn't know they could die.

Steve ends up breaking down, crying that entire night. It's not just the tamagotchi, it's everything piling up and finally spilling out. He cries from grief, from anger, from fear. He finally cries for Bucky.

He's off for the next few days, and the others notice, but he doesn't tell them what happened. Natasha tries to corner him to ask him about it, but he gets away before she can get any real answer out of him.

The whole Winter Soldier thing happens before she can try again.

Steve forgets about the tamagotchi after that, overwhelmed at the fact that Bucky's alive. Actually alive.

He helps Bucky heal and stuff

When Bucky finally moves into Steves room, they're sorting through Steve's stuff to make room for Buckys

"Is this a tamagotchi?"

Steve turns around and sees him holding Steve's old Bucky tamagotchi. He totally forgot about that thing

"How'd you know what it was?"

Bucky gives him an unamused face, "I know I'm old Steve, but not that old"

Bucky wordlessly hands Steve the tamagotchi, and Steve runs his thumb over it, stroking it softly.

Neither of them say anything for a minute before Steve says, "It was, ah, yours. Themed after you, I mean" he's annoyed at the way his voice cracks at the end.

Steve can feel Bucky watching him, but doesn't look up, not wanting to see Bucky's face. The meaning behind him having this is obvious, he knew Bucky would have already figured it out

But Bucky just hums, turning back to start rummaging through Steve's things again, "I didn't know they made one for me. Thought it was just you lot. That's kind of cool."

"Maybe I should get one of you huh? I know Nat said something about getting a house plant or something to look after, but at least with a tamagotchi, if I kill it I can just restart it."

---- or the line "I always liked that even when they die, they'll always come back." Heavily implying what happened to Bucky, that even though Steve thought he died, he came back, alive again

Steve blinks and looks up, confused, "Restart it?"

"Well, ya. You can just respawn them and start over when they die."

They stare at each other in silence, before Bucky asks him "Do you want me to show you how to bring him back?"

Steves first response is to say yes, but he pauses, and really thinks about it. Because he has Bucky here. The real Bucky. Not some pixeled Bucky, the Bucky who looks like his old Bucky. He has HIS Bucky here, his Bucky who he can still wake up next too, but feel his warm skin in his hand instead of cold plastic. His Bucky who he can cook with and eat and drink with, and sit across from the dining table with instead of just clicking a button. His Bucky who he can not just train in person with, but also go out and just walk with, hold hands with. His Bucky who he can stay up all night with, who will hold him when he has a nightmare and vise versa.

Mind made up, Steve silently turns, feeling Buckys curious gaze follow him, and places the small tamagotchi on top of the growing pile they plan on putting into storage. "No," he says softly, taking a moment before finally looking over at Bucky and giving him a small, private smile.

"He already is."