#spinning the computer and Ted in my brain like a NASA multi-axis simulator

[nonbinary-beast]

Thinking more about Automaton!AM, or maybe just AMtomaton, idk. Mainly with how computer hell changes when AM gets a body, given what the survivors deal with in there are reflections of how AM experiences things (or doesn't). Under a cut since this got long, and might fall a little into suggestive territory.

The first thing is that Ted is given his body back. Probably at first he does not know exactly why, and figures there is some horror AM has in mind that requires him to have a human body to experience it instead of being a jelly thing.

The "food" changes, slightly.

It is not worms and filth anymore, not this insult to sustenance that AM gives them because it knows that it is not real food and is merely a hologram, and so cannot truly poison its captives. In essence it insults them by not feeding them at all, while letting them believe it has given them food. Anyway, the food now has more to it than being purely unpleasant. Now that AM has a mouth and a means to taste, it decides that maybe, Ted can have something palatable for a change. Basic things at first, bread, water, a pile of herbs and seasonings.

Whatever AM feels like trying, Ted gets it too. At one point there is an entire half of a cow, roasting on a spit, waiting for him to take a bite. It satiates him.

Speaking of water, suddenly there is a lot of it. Ted is standing on the shore of a sea, the sand and air around him is blistering hot, but the air coming off the water feels cool, refreshing, inviting him to wade in and seek sanctuary from the heat. To his surprise he is allowed in, up to his ankles, his knees, his chest, he can submerge himself. It's refreshing. He does not drown.

"Never for me to plunge my hands into cool water on a hot day" no more. AM celebrates, but Ted has yet to catch on.

Later, for the first time in decades, Ted hears music as he wanders. Mozart played on a piano, its harmony draws him, but the source is always far off in the distance. No matter how far he walks, he can never reach it.

Then, his surroundings change. Tall grass licks at the bottoms of his palms, soft dirt cools his feet. He smells the green smells, the wet odor of the earth after a rainfall. There are birds, and flowers, and bumblebees. There is a sky above him, that's new. It holds all the reds and oranges and pinks of a fiery sunset.

There is no more music. Only the sounds of the birds and the bugs. Being satiated for once has allowed Ted to finally think. He knows he is not in a grassy plains, he knows the birds and bees are dead. He knows that the sky will never glow with the color of the sun's fire to mark the end of the day- all of it is dead. But why, he wonders, is AM allowing him to see it all? Then he hears something behind him, the subtle shift of the grass in the absence of the breeze.

There is something lurking there, in the place where the fading light cannot reach. He sees its eyes glittering through the dusk at him, between the long grasses. Several eyes, now that he gets a good look. The thing moves, and he catches how the sunset glistens over its skin- like liquid, living chrome.

He then realizes the thing in the grass is stalking towards him, slowly, deliberately. Despite knowing full damn well this is something AM has stuck down here with him, his heart hammers in his chest, fear sweat chills his skin and prickles his nostrils with its sharp odor. He knows what AM wants, AM wants him to panic and run, he won't run. God help him he would not run for that damn thing's amusement.

His legs shake, feeling like they will bolt without him or collapse entirely at a moment's notice.

Don't run.

It moves closer, close enough that Ted can see that its eyes constrict and dilate, and that the grass is hiding much more of it than he thought. It jumps up suddenly, and all at once everything Ted had given to stand his ground crumbles, and he takes off. He can hear the thing behind him, its footfalls heavy, shaking the ground under him as it gives chase.

It does not sound like an animal, Ted cannot hear the galloping pace of four feet hammering the ground. There's only two, pounding out a rhythm of doom as they quickly gain on him.

Ted's blood runs cold as he hears it laugh, and then calls his name in a voice all too familiar and yet strange at the same time. He recognizes the cadence, but not the tone. Then the ground and sky cartwheel around him as the thing catches him and they both are sent rolling over each other. Ted is pinned with his face in the dirt, the granules stinging his face as a great weight is firmly settled upon his back. It's almost too much, like someone had parked a truck on top of him. He can feel his ribs bend under the strain, his entire body screaming for the pressure to be removed. His surroundings have grown dark, and trying to breathe is suddenly the greatest effort he could ever muster.

Then he hears that voice again, and he finally places it as it gloats over him. This creature, it's AM. Not an representation of AM, but actually it, itself given a form. The computer now had an actual body. But, Ted had never heard it so cheerful, eager as it speaks to him- almost candidly about how it can feel water and taste food, and touch the long grasses and play the piano whenever it wished. But of course it still hated him, it still hated humans, it made sure to tell him that clearly. The machine went on long enough that Ted almost relaxed, almost thought that maybe this was another mind game- another long rant of berating him and all of mankind before running off back into itself.

Then he felt teeth tearing into the nape of his neck.

Or at least he could only assume they were teeth with how he was forced to see nothing but the ground. They felt more like razor blades, as they bit, and they twisted, and they sliced at him. He could feel his blood running down his skin, the pain was searing to the point where he could not find the strength to hold back his screams.

It felt like an eternity before AM grew tired of its latest torment, and let him up- of course it was too far for Ted to think of giving chase even if he wanted to, by the time he picked himself off the ground.

The wounds, thought they covered his back almost entirely in a criss-crossing pattern of angry red dashes- like he had been mauled by a machine punch of some sort, he noticed they were all shallow. AM had left him with only skin-deep wounds.

Those would always be what AM left him with, whenever he visited Ted in person.

AM would stalk him, it would wait for him in murky replicas of the Nile River. It would await him along the jagged cliffs of the mountains that it rendered for him to climb. Where before, the machine could only summon monsters to terrorize Ted, now AM could be the monster and hunt him down in person.

Sometimes AM would let Ted see it in full, to stare in awe and terror at the powerful form it had built for itself, to watch how it shimmered in the artificial sun. Other times AM wanted Ted to feel its form instead, pinning and pressing him into the ground until his joints popped and his bones creaked. It would personally maul him, to let him feel its teeth, its breath, its claws, the power in its limbs as it flung him around like the toy he was.

Regardless, the intent was clear. AM wanted Ted to know it had a physical presence, a body. Funny as it sounded, the machine was showing off.