8523/Sentinels: Bag of Entrails

Sentinels: Bag of Entrails
Date of Scene:	26 July 2019
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Jessica learns more of Sebastion's plans while he repairs himself (GORE WARNING)
Cast of Characters:	Bastion, Spider-Woman (Drew)
Tinyplot:	Sentinels

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Bastion has posed:
While Sebastion wasn't given privacy, he parks his little project in a building near the landing zone of the army of sentinels. His project consists of him, and fine ordinary looking people, that have since then been labeled as human-appearing Sentinels. Four of them - three women and one man - stand outside, blankly staring at nothing, just waiting, near the rest of the huge sentinels. One, a male looking fellow, was brought in with Sebastion: used to push the wheelchair into the open building.

Sebastion is being watched hawkishly, of course, and gets no privacy to do what he's doing: but he also doesn't seem to expect it. The arrived, ordinary looking Sentinel guides the wheelchair in, and then comes around in front of Sebastion.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
Jessica slept very little, and has found the time to return to civilization for a shower and a change of clothes. When she returns, she finds Sebastion being wheeled into an empty building by one of the Ordinary Folk series of sentinels. She watches for a long moment before she walks inside to speak with Sebastion.

"Sebastion. How are you feeling? Are you all right, after last night? You needed rest." At this point, Jessica isn't sure 'rest' actually helps Sebastion at all. It's hard guessing as to his physiology sometimes.

Bastion has posed:
"I'll be all right. Some necessary repairs to my body should help, though it's not my biggest problem," sighs the sentinel. Sebastion uses his hand to draw his clothing aside on the side that is missing an arm, and ejects part of the destroyed elbow on that end neatly, catching it. He sets it in his lap. The new Sentinel strips off his shirt without any issue during this, then simply stands there and allows Sebastion to extend his own hand. Metal coils spring out of the elbow-joint of Sebastion's surviving arm, and insert into the other Sentinel's arm on that same side. He extracts the arm, fully popping it loose, and draws it back towards himself with the metal leads, towards his missing stump.

The whole process is very clear: Sebastion is taking an arm from the donor human-sized Sentinel.

"I'm going to need a container to put the organic parts in, to be returned," Sebastion says quietly. "Can you help with that?"

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
Jessica swallows, her eyes fluttering shut for the briefest of moments. She fights a wave of nausea, as she nods her head slightly, and reopens her eyes. "I'll get that...do you need it now?" she replies solemnly.

Jess looks then at the replaced arm, and she reaches out to it, touching it lightly. She looks back up to Sebastion. "Can you even still feel human contact, Sebastion?"

Bastion has posed:
"Feel it? Not right now, I don't have it on. I'd be in a lot of pain from my leg if I did," Sebastion says, in a small, uncomfortable voice. Talking about how he isn't human has never been something he likes, but he's dealing with it. Because he has to. "I'd rather be more human but I think everyone will be happier if I replace them," Sebastion says.

"Yes I need the bin now," he says, perhaps sensing her nausea.

"It will be unpleasant." He's sorry.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
Jessica nods, and she goes back to some supplies. On one of the jets, there is a biohazard bin, for God knows what. It's larger than one would need to put a body, unless that body was inhuman and huge. It'll be larger than what she needs, but it has containment bags inside it, and she may need those, as well. She shakes her head, and carries the bin back across an acre of sentinels to where Sebastion is held up in the empty building.

"This should work," she says resolutely, opening it and removing the bags. Are they from...different donors? Or just one?"

Bastion has posed:
Sebastion appears to steel himself, and shifts his weight in the chair. He has to get the pants off first, which is already flagging in his programming as something weird to do in public. He does it anyway; it takes ages, so he'll just have finished it when she's back. The leg looks pretty horrible: it's veined, stressed, the ankle fiercely red and purple. With some awful mechanical sounds, he ejects it off of his hip, and pulls it away with a disturbing suction sound. It is very promptly a severed limb, though it's not bloody.

The assisting Sentinel uses its one hand to accept it at the ankle and move it towards the bin. "Just one donor."

THUD goes the limb in the bin.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
Jessica nods, watching the assisting sentinel, and being very grateful that she isn't the one having to assist. Not that she would not do it, if she needed to. Just that she'd...rather not. The reality of what he was under there is not much different from what she had expected. Especially with the injury. "Where does it need to be returned?" she asks. And seeing him struggling, she asks, nonetheless. "Is there anything else I can do to help?"

Bastion has posed:
"I don't know. I tried not to focus on it," says the guilty Sebastion. "Captain Quaid was my contact about this, I believe he knows. It could be referred through him, I hope." He glances at her and shakes his head no. "I can do it. You do not have to watch," he reminds. There's enough people watching in surveillance he knows. The assisting sentinel sits down and very obviously powers off, before Sebastion takes the leg, using a mixture of the metallic coils and his new hand to link things into place. He climbs out of the wheelchair, with some care, without pants.

"The last part will be messy," he warns her, squatting by the sentinel Donor, and physically opening the abdominal cavity. It isn't messy, he does start extracting pieces of hardware and setting them out in a row nearby, though.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
"I've seen a guy without pants before," Jessica replies with a smirk. She moves closer in case he needs any assistance but she doesn't reach out. She's just there. In case.

"What are you..." She trails off. Just watching curiously. If he warned that the last part will be messy, she can be certain he isn't to the last part, yet. "Friends aren't just friends when stuff isn't messy, Sebastion. Friends see each other through the messy parts, and to the other side." She looks around, uncertain of where the security cameras might be located. "Just don't worry about it. I'm here because I want to be."

Bastion has posed:
"Perhaps," sighs Sebastion. "Can you hand me one of the bags - no, two bags?" he asks her, since she does seem to be wanting to stay and help out. He continues to dig around and extract pieces from the apparently shut down Sentinel. Sebastion has shown a number of things already: including his ability to just cause another Sentinel to lay down and offer parts up to him without any apparent question or fight.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
Jessica quickly moves to the bags and moves them closer, opening one up with a flick and holding it open. Simultaneously, two thoughts go through her mind.

She's about to have to catch his entrails in a plastic bag.

and

Now she won't be able to bring him any more muffins.

"Ready," she says, steeling herself for the absolute worst that she can imagine, and hoping she's wrong.

Bastion has posed:
The parts are now all ready for him to put into his body. Which means ejection of more organics is coming. Sebastion accepts the bags from her, and sort of turns his torso away a little bit, in an expression of shame or secrecy. He opens his lower abdomen by peeling back several sections of shiny but malleable metal and rubber-like sheets, and then begins to scoop the entrails out into the bag. It's absolutely horrifying, and reeks, as soon as he releases things from the internal hookups.

It's a partial digestive system, for use to take care of the organic parts he'd had, so there's a lot of entrails there. The blood is minimal, it's a lot of sloppy organs, and at one point he reaches into the cavity and disconnects a few things manually, drawing them out, and unclipping the robotic parts off the organic ones.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
Yep. There go the muffins.

Jessica holds her breath to keep from retching. She turns her head away. He doesn't want her to see, anymore than she wants to see, at this point. She knows. She's known, all along. But she never wanted to think about it. He was just human. And now, he is just so very not.

When she turns again to look at Sebastion, she keeps her gaze on him. Trying to reconcile the Sebastion she knows with the sentinel she sees before her. She very quickly learns that his appearance isn't important. His actions. His words. The fact that he can love poppies. The fact that he can trust. These, for Jessica, are what matters. And his ability to evolve.

His ability to evolve.

Bastion has posed:
Heat rolls off his hand - his old one, if it's important-as he sterilizes the inside of his body carefully and with obvious knowledge of where to apply the heat in a thin laser from palm. It's a straightforward procedure, it won't seem like he hesitates or doesn't know what to do at any point. He closes up the bag and sets it down, focused on the replacement parts and rapidly begins to install them in his abdomen, using his new hand more as a helper than an active participant, as if it weren't as good as his original one.

"This isn't saving my life," Sebastion comments quietly. "Just makes me more competent to fly or walk. My trouble is in my head. But I'll look better."

Sebastion gets through the parts he wanted for his abdomen, and then flips the Sentinel over to open the back of the upper spine, and examines some exposed metal there.

"These models don't match me very well; I can't find everything I need," he murmers.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
Jess nods. "I know. I'm still working to get what we need to save your life, Sebastion. What you're doing, though, it's bound to help. You've done so much. And so well."

As Sebastion works on the new parts, Jessica can't help her curiosity. "Is that why the new hand doesn't work as well? Does it have a weapon like your original? Or is it something different? You weren't using it when you needed a laser..."

She continues to watch, and the questions continue to come. "What do you still need? Can you give me a revised list?" If his brain held just the answers to a finite nuber of questions before it runs out of juice, Jess just used up half of them.

Bastion has posed:
Sebastion is still closing himself up, now. It's taking time, but seems efficient enough. He doesn't take anything out of the back of the Sentinel, but does trigger something there. The Sentinel twitches a little and emits a foul burning odor, and then goes still. He very clearly destroyed something inside it.

"Whoa, let me answer," Sebastion chuckles at her. He finishes closing his torso, and starts to put his clothes back on. The uncanny valley he had had going on reduces drastically: he's turning his human-acting systems all back on. Despite what she just watched, he's suddenly more human than before the procedure.

"Yes, it doesn't match, but I can use it. It isn't as good as what I had," he begins. "It has a weapon but less fine tune control, and the internal coolant isn't as safe. I still need everything on that list. These aren't as good as what's on it," he answers. "Those are still the best replacements."

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
"I hope we can get ahold of those things," Jessica replies. "I've got a copy of the list you gave me, in case anyone claims that they lost it. I'm gonna do everything I can to get you the parts you need."

With some trepidation, and a hesitant look down at the donor sentinel, Jess asks another question. Quietly. "Did you just terminate him?" She's uncertain why the thought even bothers her, apart from the fact that he told her once that he had a self-destruct built in.

Bastion has posed:
"I rendered the power cores safe," Sebastion says, with some surprise at her reaction. "And destroyed some other things, yes." Sebastion stands up now fully, shirt back on: he took the nicer one that the donor had. Why not, really. "They aren't people," he says, slowly, to her. "They're machines that have no self awareness. It felt nothing, any more than a car would."

He looks at the 'corpse' though, while packaging the organic parts in the bags out of sight and closing the container. He drapes the corpse into the wheelchair with nearly no effort; he's strong and doesn't see a point in hiding it: they all know he's got the body of a machine.

"If it were like me, or human, it's different. I don't know how to explain this. It feels different. This was okay." Sebastion looks at her with a kind worry. It's all very human looking. "I can't kill a person."

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
Jess shakes her head quickly, as if she could brush off a thought. Put it out of her head. "No, I know, it's just..." What? Is it any different than he, if it had been given the freedom to think and evolve, too? Even so, she has little regard for the now dead donor sentinel.

She cannot help wondering if that's how it would go, if he had to destruct. She looks at him for what seems like a long time, but just shakes her head again. He told her not to be near him if that happens. Like she'd be anywhere else, given the choice. She can only assume it would be something far more catastrophic. "Sometimes it's difficult to wrap my mind around some of this, that's all."

Bastion has posed:
Sebastion looks at her a long moment, and then just starts laughing. It's a little manic: like he doesn't know how else to react, so he chose to laugh as appropriate. His expression is slightly off, as well.

The laughing just ends as rapidly as it started up, and he shakes his head, and turns his new arm out and down, charging up and testing the response and heat levels of the hand, and flexing the fingers. Similarly, he walks in a circle, testing. He does a little jump, nothing inhuman, but clearly seems to stop and calibrate afterwards, and does it again. "I think I am ready to go to a factory, to continue to convert sentinels, before they turn on the population," Sebastion states.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
There have been many moments that should have been huge red flags along the way, as Jessica's relationship with Sebastion has evolved. Jessica, for all her steadfast faith and friendship, would have none of them. She could explain them away. She could dismiss them. And did. Always.

Until now.

"Wouldn't it...be easier to stop the production of the sentinels, than to continue to try and convert them all, Sebastion?"

Bastion has posed:
Sebastion considers her question. "But the Sentinels are useful. It is better to control them, than to halt production," he answers, logically. He turns towards her to look at her. "But we can stop the current molds, yes. I think I can build newer, better ones, if I survive." He gives her a hopeful smile.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
"Sebastion what are they useful for, now that you've taken them out of commission and put them on the ground? What would you do with them?" Jessica turns to look out the door at the veritable city that has been created out of sentinels in the open fields.

In a voice not unlike a mother chiding her child about asking for too many toys, she asks him as she returns her gaze to him, cautiously. "What would you do with a hundred more that you could not do with these fifty-some-odd?"

Bastion has posed:
"I would prevent them from being used by Trask or others improperly. And used to protect the people that need it most, in the hands of those that need protection," Sebastion answers. "The innocent that are powerless deserve to be protected. I can't be everywhere. Heroes can't. With enough Sentinels, maybe they can all be protected. It is a dream, I know. But with enough sentinels, why can't that be real?"

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
Jessica takes a moment to imagine this beautiful dream as Sebastion unfurls it before her. Sentinels, as far as the eye can see, in a post-apocalyptic world where /everyone/ is protected. Watched over, 24 hours a day by vigilant sentinels that never sleep. And at the helm of this world, ruled by millions of sentinels? One man, who believes with all his heart that he is human, and that he is protecting the people. His people. With his sentinels.

Sebastion.



Oh, no...