Soul Stasis - "Retrace" - By: Owlusion

Once within the small farmhouse, Alex and Seff hear the sheepish bovines outside excitedly baah-ing. “They love the electrical surges from the storm, it helps them recharge.” Seff sips his tea slowly. The scent smells of floral and fruity notes with a hint of sweet spice. 

Seff’s father comes into the room with the same tea and stares out the window. He sits down on one of the comfortable pillows and sips away. “Hmh…” He grunts. “So… robot.” Alex perks his ears and stares at the large feathered man awaiting further audio. “Where did you come from?” Alex looks down at the table, he too has a cup of tea nearest to him, staring into the mirrored image of his tearing and glitching left eye. Some of the blue liquid falls into the tea and swirls floating downward. This confuses Alex and he looks closer into the tea, staring at its bottom. The blue liquid stays still and in shape as before yet separates while in airy temperament. Seff’s father is already at a loss, wondering why he isn’t replying. He sees a small rip in the back of his neck, oozing blue liquid with a small amount of wiring exposed. He puts his tea down, slowly getting up as Seff stares at him. Quietly and carefully he looks into the rip and sees larger components and blue flesh glowing around it as well as a chorded spine made of polymer cartilage and metallic columns. He’s astonished at how complex this being is. He has never seen such perfect craftsmanship of any kind. “Where -did- you come from exactly…” He sees a broken part of metal and takes it looking at the grooves and smooth outer layer. “Titanium…” He ponders, roaming back to his pillow, sitting in it again. 

Seff tells Alex, “So my father’s name, it’s Akhmin. I used to have a mother… but she passed. I wonder what she reincarnated as… probably a bee?”, Seff chuckles a little. Akhmin pockets the titanium and stares back outside. The gusts are at their worst and the sheep are finally calm and asleep. Seff also stares at the storm. “So do you think there will be many Quallix this day? It’s been fairly acidic…” Seff is pondering the success rate and amount of meat they can harvest by the end of the planet’s month. Akhmin thinks for a moment, already complacent with the amount of food he’ll be able to harvest, wondering more about what they just happened upon… the robot they just picked up, battered and broken, sentient, and somehow, very lost. The Raphiim tribe has been around sentient robotics before but they didn’t have humanoid looks nor did they have blue essence dripping from the seams. The robots they came into contact with had a more clanky and robust chassis, they were helpful but more like slaves and had directives, had no will and were made to serve. Some of them did become lost at some point, they even started gaining will but in the end, were unable to live amongst other living beings, rusting and returning to the soil as ruin, so they wanted to be put to death compliantly and recycled. The history of these robots was tragic and yet peaceful. This one was different, however. They felt alive more than any robot that they’ve come into contact with, more… “human”. There’s either something wrong here or something off. “I need to get behind this…” Seff stares at his dad, “Huh?” Akhmin stares back at where Alexander was and his heart jumps, Alexander is walking into the eye of the storm and is already halfway there. “ALEX!!” Seff yelps. Akhmin gets up and runs to the edge of the house’s porch and motions Alexander to get back inside. “Hey!!”, Akhmin stares back down at his palm with the titanium shard in it. “Hm…I think he will be ok…” Seff stares at Alex and back at the shard, “How?”, Akhmin shows it in the glistening, striking lightning and says, “He’s got grounded components. The lightning won’t affect his systems as badly but it will still be dangerous for him. He has a chance. This should be a good test for his body… to withstand a smaller challenge like game hunting”

Alexander is treading into the eye of the storm, the dark abyssal clouds with torrential downpour of acidic liquids. Something within his body is creating a pulsar, a warm glow emits from his core as if luring him outside. As he braces this danger, he’s constantly repeating the word “Stop” within his mind trying to control his body’s actions. Lightning strikes fairly close to his position, frightening him. He rapidly says “Stop” again, staring directly at the lightning bolt about to pierce his forehead as time slows. He’s about to get blasted by tonnes of energy when suddenly, his body feels like it’s resisting impact and moving backwards… a gravitational field is holding his body and pulling it toward a portal that opens up behind him, emitting from his back. It looks like a polygonal, four-sided star, ether emanating from its opening. He blinks away from the lightning and into the portal, seeing flashes of images from when he was walking toward the storm and feeling a spark of electricity from that zap as he drifts away from it as if in two places at once. The feeling of nausea is almost absent but gives his mind vertigo as he blinks back into existence and drops to the floor, his eyes dim and tired. Faint voices clutter as static audio in what seems to sound like “Alex!” “Are you okay?!” and drifts off into nothing. 

One last dream occurs. One of absolute fear and madness. A dark orb glistening in a black void. It’s levitating in place right in front of Alexander, stationed as if it were an egg. It boisters like a throbbing heart. Black tarry tentacles reach out from it, slowly moving toward Alex. Not being able to move, Alexander is wrapped in them, dragged toward the orb without escape.