Chiasmata: Found Footage

>Your aunt?

ASH: "Your aunt? What's she like?"
DAVID: "Does it involve more explosions?"
ARCHIVE: "She is one of my piblings. My uncle is curious and imaginative; my cousin is logical and considered; but my aunt is passionate and practical. She will know what to do."
DAVID: "Pibling? I don't know what that means."
ARCHIVE: "According to my dictionary, it means that they are the siblings of my p..."
ASH: "Of your parents, right?"
ARCHIVE: "ERROR: FILE NOT FOUND"
DAVID: "What?"
ARCHIVE: "<analysing>"
ARCHIVE: "This system cannot remember its parent's face."
ASH: "Um, my commiserations?"

The Archive's flat voice rises, a dangerous undercurrent of emotion rising from its depths.

ARCHIVE: "Data have been stolen from my archives. T-this cannot be allowed to continue."

It doesn't manage to continue, though, because its mildly-offended half-tirade is cut off by an interloper.










~==>

It's Leo, a horrifying phantom that looks a bit like him if you squint, and... Anders, wasn't it?

LEO: "Ah, sorry for butting in, but Anders isn't waking up. I'm not sure what to do."
ASH: "He did do this before. I'm not sure if it's a bad thing or a good thing, but he talked in someone else's voice for a bit when he woke up."
DAVID: "I'm still not sure what that was all about."
ASH: "Do you know, Archive?"
ARCHIVE: "I don't believe so. The memory trap, or possibly another factor explains why he collapsed, but I do not know where any additional words would come from."
LEO: "Memory trap? What's that?"
ARCHIVE: "The archive system that separates subjects from their memories."
ASH: "Could we get our memories back?"
ARCHIVE: "You receive them when you complete your tasks and leave the Location."
ASH: "Well, what are our tasks, then?"
ARCHIVE: "I... am not authorised to access that information until all the subjects are gathered, prior to a change of façade."










->

ARCHIVE: "And one of your fellow subjects is proving... difficult to reason with."










>What are we here for, really?

DAVID: "You haven't really explained wh... why... um."
ARCHIVE: "Yes? You have a query?"
ASH: "Doesn't that hurt?"
ARCHIVE: "What hurt?"
ASH: "Arms don't... normally bend like that."
LEO: "Also, your eyes are bleeding. And nose. And ears."
ARCHIVE: "Ah. The scaffold upon which this shell was fabricated is starting to reject the mechanical intrusions into its biological systems."
ASH: "Biologic- you mean that thing's alive? I assumed it was some robot thing made to look like a human!"
ARCHIVE: "Incorrect. It is not alive. I believe it has been dead for approximately two quadrillion, three hundred and five trillion, forty-three billion, six hundred and fifty-four million, five hundred and twenty-eight thousand, eight hundred and three seconds. The margin of error is one point eight five nine one three seconds, almost intolerably large."
LEO: "That sounds like a long time. But if it's dead, why is it still bleeding?"
ARCHIVE: "Simple; it's trying to come back to life."

Footnote:

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Well, it's been a while, but have an update.