-=Episode 7/p1=-
-=-=-=-

9S's transit down to the surface was an easy one.

The Scanner had noticed that the mood around the bunker had been… different, since he got back. His own analysis of the situation, (one he was very proud of, thank you very much,) was that everyone was still in shock over something, and were trying to cope with it through their work. He figured asking outright, no matter how curious he was, would have been rude at best. If the rest of his comrades were doing their best to ignore something, who was he to bring it up? Whatever it was, he would have learned about it eventually anyway.

Well, that speech was his answer.

The Council of Humanity never existed.

Or, rather, it did- but it wasn't a council of humans.

Perhaps the resistance camp was broken up by this news–but 9S was something else entirely. He couldn't process that at first; the implications were too great, too foundational for him.

The Council of Humanity is what commissioned YoRHa. It's what the Scanner had believed gave him and all of his kin the gift of life. It's what he's fought for, died for once or twice now even. To know that the foundation of and reason for his existence was a lie…

He couldn't process that for the whole of the hour.

And then he did.

And then he did.

He left the bunker immediately, 9S had to piece that together because exactly zero processing power was being dedicated towards how quickly he was moving. But he wasn't thinking about that–not even a fraction of a part of him was. And so again, his transit to the surface was an easy one. 9S was uncaring of proper procedure. He did not care if Commander Whtie considered him a deserter for not logging his departure. His goal now was entirely a single-minded one.

Find the Human. Request clarification.

—

When 9S reached the door, he found himself stopped by a number of other YoRHa 'droids. 11B chief among them–or, 11G as her tag now read.

"9S. You're in a hurry."

"Where's the Human?" His voice was hurried, urgent. Out of the corner of his eye, he could tell one or two of the other YoRHa units were getting rather alarmed–not such an obvious thing to those who wouldn't know how to spot the signs, but 9S could tell.

"Rorke isn't here right now. Out with the twins."

"What? Where?"

"Catching fish, they said. Why?"

"I need to ask him something."

11G was scrutinizing him, he knew. Why? They were on the same side, weren't they?

"Right. Take 17B and 35B with you, then. They'll escort you."

11G motioned the two Battlers to join 9S, and he saw the appendix of their name tags change from 'Camp Guard Detachment' to 'Escort Detail'.

He left the camp as quickly as he entered with two new plus-ones, yet without so much as a 'bye'.

-=-E7-=-

-=-P1-=-

To think the Human's fishing spot was so close to 2B's own–it was almost a wonder that the three of them had never encountered in the field.

9S saw him there, along with the two twins that had been taking care of him. A not-so-small creek adorned with bushes, enclosed by a tree thicker than any car - the crowning piece, a chunk of building dead-center of the lake, overgrown with moss and greenery. He stood there, eyes on a small box of caught fish.

His stride was urgent, and before he knew it he was face to face with the Human.

9S could hardly help himself now–and introduced himself with a shouted assertion;

"You're wrong!"

The Scanner wasn't sure what he was expecting in reaction, but he found himself just as surprised as Rorke himself was.

"Excuse me?" His voice wasn't anything close to offended. The tone sounded more… confused, taken aback more than anything.

So the Scanner reaffirmed himself, ignoring the twins at Rorke's either side with their hands on their hilts, mirroring the two Battlers behind him. "You're wrong! You said it changes nothing- that there's no one on the moon, but you're wrong!"

Rorke put a hand in front of one of the twins - Popola, 9S thought that was - and motioned for her to relax her sword. "Well, you're very clearly bothered by something I've said. Let's talk it out."

9S was tense, he knew. 9S was also still uncertain about how he thought the human would react. This, though… An offer to just.. discuss? No other resistance?

It had taken the wind from his sails quite cleanly indeed.

"So then, what's got you all riled up, son?" The man spoke with clear interest and concern both. "You wouldn't have come all the way here to tell me I'm wrong in my entirety."

"You said that the humans being a lie changes nothing–but, how? How could that be true? I only exist because they authorized it. They commissioned YoRHa, didn't they? They're the reason I'm- The reason everyone in the bunker is there."

"...You said your name was 9S, last time we met, right?"

The Scanner nodded.

"9S, It's rude to answer a question with another question, so do forgive what I'm about to ask.

Why does this matter?"

"It-" 9S started, almost as a reaction than anything else. How could he not understand just how important this is? "Of course it matters! They're why I exist!"

"Perhaps I'll rephrase. What bearing does this have on you, right now? How does learning this change how you're going to go about your life?"

For just a moment, the scanner took his time processing this, and his careful response. "I… It changes everything I thought I knew I was fighting for. What I've seen other Androids die for. Doesn't that just… nullify it all? There is no council of humanity. No humans on the moon- hell, we've been saluting them for the three years YoRHa's been around for! Other Androids, even longer! We've been fighting for them, and we learn they're 'inhuman', that we've been lied to this whole time!"

The human nodded, and sat down on a particularly large chunk of building on the ground. Motioned for 9S to sit, too. So he did.

The scanner waited. Must've waited for half a minute of the human considering, testing and reconsidering a response. Long enough for the Battlers behind him to calm down somewhat. The four others in the group were still tense, guarded and just a little standoffish–but the silence here seemed to make them uncertain whether threats of violence were needed here.

And then Rorke answered. He didn't make eye contact- he instead spoke to the creek.

"Son, I hear you. Really, I do. I've stripped you of purpose, haven't I? That's how you're seeing it anyhow." He trailed off, and paused for a moment. It was then that he turned to 9S, and did his best to lock eyes beneath the Scanner's visor.

"But why did you fight for the Council of Humanity?"

"They were human, is what we were told. The Humans made Androids, they gave us life and only asked us to help them. So we do."

"Well, there you go. You fought for the council because they were human. You were fighting for humanity, no? All of you were. The council may be a lie, but we're still around- us humans I mean. One of us, anyway."

"Still- even that! There's only one human left to fight for! I thought we were dying for a species! You're so close to extinct that you've got the title of terminarch!"

"...Tell you what, son. Stay close to me for the next, oh…" The human gazed to the sun, as though he was trying to check the time. "say, three hours. I can't rightly say anything you're thinking is wrong- you're right about all too much of it I think. So, instead, stick around and keep thinking- and maybe you'll have a new answer to what you're fighting for soon enough."

"Stick around..? What're you going to be doing?"

"Well, cooking of course!"

9S wasn't certain about this idea–but there was much he wasn't certain about in the last few hours. And so, he agreed.

-=-E7-=-

-=-P1-=-

"See, 9S, I've been making a few… unreasonable requests to the folks in Requisitions. Herbs and spices, a good pot, good vegetables, good meat and lots of dishware and utensils. Frankly, I'm astounded they fulfilled all of these requests! They really went above and beyond with some of these." Rorke explained.

In front of them, being 9S, the twins, Rorke and their two pods, was a couple of crates and a sizable cast-iron cauldron. Firewood and good tinder were stacked nearby, too. They stood in the supply depot behind the camp, under the canopy.

"Now, there's nothing better than a good stew, I think. Ok, that's a lie actually, but I have no idea how sushi is made and Paddy isn't telling me so this is next best." Rorke gave a faux-glare to the Pod in question–9S noticed it was a chrome thing with purple lining, in contrast to 2B's pod's silver with orange or 9S' own pod's dark steel with red. Each and every pod was different like that, he noticed.

"Well, actually, that's a lie too but I haven't tried making a good burger yet and we don't have the equipment for pizza. So; stew it is."

9S chose then to speak up. "Ah… I'm not actually sure what most of that is. Could you explain?"

"Oh! Actually, do me a favor, yes? Hold on to that question and any others you might have. How do you feel about being in one of these broadcasts?"

Being in one? 9S had watched plenty, most of them were simple Q&As but there were a fair share of other activities; exploration, fishing… But being part of one had never crossed his mind.

"What would I have to do?"

"Well, I've only got the one arm, cooking needs a bit more than that. Twins here have already agreed to help out with cooking, but if you'd like to chop up some of the vegetables too I'd be delighted. Otherwise, all you'd have to do is hold on to those questions, ask them when you think they'll be relevant."

9S nodded. "I think I can do that. Both of those, I mean."

"Lovely! Right- I'm thinking we'll be serving two things. To start off with, we've caught ourselves a small collection of fish, can very easily fry them up and serve 'em with some lemon and butter–still surprised they had butter available. Before we cook the fish, though, we'd have to get started on that stew- that'll take a few hours to make I think."

Hours? Most of the Wildman's broadcasts were only an hour long at most. "Just how much effort goes into stew?"

"Oh, not too much. Put everything into a big pot, stir periodically, after everything has had time to melt together you have stew. oh! They have cheese, too! Perfect!" Rorke answered, still digging around the ingredients. "Hey, Devola, Popola, you mind helping sort these? 9S, could you go set up that Cauldron in the resistance camp? I may not be good for much with one arm but I can still carry a sack of potatoes."

Popola's face slipped into concern- "Please don't. You'll hurt that shoulder of yours and then it won't heal back right."

"Ah, nonsense! I can take it!" Rorke boasted, as though he had something to prove.

The twin did not stop being concerned, but brokered no more argument. "If you say so…"

9S saw the human deflate just a little bit at the tone, and he moved from his position near the larger sack of potatoes to the smaller one. Popola seemed to take notice of the action, the scanner saw. She seemed to appreciate the consideration if nothing else.

"Right! Let's get to it then."

9S picked up the cauldron as he was instructed. Rorke hefted a small bag of potatoes over his good shoulder and immediately grimaced, leaning so his bad shoulder would get none of the pressure. The twins seemed concerned, but dutifully followed his request to help by bringing the firewood and another crate of ingredients.

But, he was thinking something else–the human had said he'd be delighted by 9S' help.

Somewhere deep inside, he felt a very familiar, base program that had gone unfulfilled begin to process nothing but an unfamiliar satisfaction. An unfulfilled program now fulfilled.

The same program that had ached when he and his kin saluted the moon colony.

-=-E7-=-

-=-P1-=-

The red light flicked 'on'.

"Goo~od morning, Camp! Now, I know our last meeting those weeks ago was a rather… distressing, affair, so I'd like to try something else.

Who here likes food?"

Four, no- five hands raised in the crowd. Less than I was hoping.

"And who here would like to try some? Not the bland kind like just a fish, or raw meat or vegetables or roots. We'll be cooking this first, and we'll be cooking it well."

More than a few this time–good, good!

"And anyone who'd like to learn how to make good food?"

Even more- maybe more than half the camp was interested.

"Ah, fantastic! Because I managed to get enough ingredients out of Requisitions that we can make enough food for the whole camp to have two servings per Android! Paddy, if you'd kindly light the fire?"

A small bolt of Maso from Paddy, and a fire lit under the cauldron.

Our setup had attracted much attention, it seemed. A sizable charcoal grill for the fish, a cauldron for the stew–we had just about a whole field kitchen out here. We each had washed our hands at my own insistence beforehand. It didn't matter if your bodies were self-cleaning, damnit, it's only proper to clean them before preparing food for others!

"First thing we'll be making is a nice stew. Big old bowl here filled with water, we just need to wait for it to boil. Hey, Twins, what'd we get out of Req for ingredients?"

Devola answered first from the ingredients she gathered for the stew. "Seeing here… A couple loaves of bread, twelve pounds of Venison, couple pounds of onions, a good collection of Carrots…"

She continued to rattle off things like celery, salt, ground pepper, herbs like parsley and thyme and rosemary. We had red wine, beef stock, bacon, flour, olive oil, tomato paste and mushrooms. A long, long list of ingredients to be put into what would be the best stew in the last few millennia, goddamnit.

"So, we've already done a lot of the work for the stew. You'll notice the beef stock and the red wine has already been mixed, and then poured over a tray of our meat and vegetables. Left it in an icebox for the last eight hours. Bacon has already been cooked to a crisp and now it is finally ready for the pot." I was getting hungry just thinking about it…

"For those of you at home, this recipe could take upwards of ten hours to make, though you shouldn't need to monitor it for a good nine of those hours. First thing you do is you take all of your ingredients and mix them together in a big tray. Sprinkle all of your herbs and spices on top of everything equally and then pour in your mix of wine and beef stock. Let that sit in an icebox or refrigerator for eight hours before taking out the whole dish."

I motioned to what was in front of me. "After that, you want to separate the meat chunks from the vegetables, and keep the marinade in a separate bowl too. You've got bacon, you want to cook it to a crisp however you can, but not into charcoal. After that, come back and rewatch what the four of us are about to do."

I signalled the twins to grab their respective bowls of ingredients, and 9S to grab the marinade – and we started putting together a damn good stew.

"So, son, how about you introduce yourself to our audience here?" I asked 9S first; knowing what I did about the Twin's reputation, I figured to keep them out of the limelight for now. Loved the both of them to death–it's just, others very much didn't.

"O-oh, sure!" The boy still seemed nervous about being on camera. His introduction was a shy one, timid. "My name's 9S. Though, friends call me Nines."

Combine his demeanor with how much of a prettyboy 9S was, I couldn't tell whether or not the boy actually noticed but I swear to you a third of the audience swooned immediately.

This boy would break hearts one day, I was sure of it.

"I'm told you scanner types are a curious bunch. You've got any questions for us?"

"Oh, plenty! I've been saving them up like you asked!"

Well, can't say I didn't ask for it. "How about it, then? I think we've got time to ask for some questions."

I checked my watchless wrist for the time, and came up with "roughly thirty minutes of time actually before we check on the stew. In the meanwhile, Paddy, do you mind lighting the grill?"

Paddy bobbed an 'affirmative' in the air and proceeded with his task. 9S, on the other hand…

"Earlier today, you were talking about things like Sushi and Burgers and Pizza, but… what are those things?" The scanner started hesitantly, but his enthusiasm grew once he started focusing on the question itself.

"Right… Let's start with sushi." I began to stir up the pot, mix everything together in its low boil.

"Sushi was an old way of preserving fish from before refrigeration. What I remember is that it tasted horrible at first. It was some fish wrapped in seaweed, covered in rice and rolled into a small log of sorts. Then you fermented it. It tasted like fermented fish–which isn't a good taste. But, when you rely on things like the presence of food during times where you cannot grow food, then whatever feeds you, right?"

9S nodded along, just a little confused. One of the androids in our little audience spoke up–"But then why not find something better to eat? Were they being forced to eat something that tasted bad?"

"Right- I was getting to that actually, but thank you for the segue. So, they didn't actually have much available to them, the people who made this early sushi. Not a lot that would last through the months where you couldn't grow food, anyway, so this method of preservation was valuable enough to continue for a few centuries."

9S spoke up again. "You made the implication that Sushi was some of the best kinds of food, though. What makes it so great if it tastes bad?"

"Right! Well, then refrigeration happened and humans learned how to keep their food cold in boxes for long periods of time. Food could stay fresh for long enough that this whole 'fermenting' thing became an obsolete method of preservation. So instead the chefs that would make sushi survived by making it taste good. And by fucking jove himself, they made it taste good. The same basic principle remained, fish wrapped in seaweed covered in rice and then rolled up into a log. But they never again fermented it- it'd be eaten fresh and delicious. They'd add more things to it, sesame seed to the rice, vegetables, sauces, soy sauce was like a sort of liquid salt that you'd dip the rolls into. Man, I miss sushi." I trailed off into reminiscence. Expensive though it was for the dwindling number of fish, it was still an excellent meal. The ladle slowed in the pot, and I rested it on our very temporary countertop.

"Right. Pizza and burgers, then?"

Ah, Italian and… what were hamburgers, American? The name references a German city, so German? I really didn't know.

"In irrespective order, I'm not entirely sure the origin of the hamburger- only that it's a bit more complicated than preserved fish. You've got two buns, ground-up beef you shape into a paddy- sorry, no, a patty, and a small assortment of vegetables. Pickles, lettuce, tomato… You'd have your sauces too, the usual like mustard and ketchup, sometimes you'd have cheese too. Turn it all into one sandwich. It was basically a staple in the diet of a whole few countries, this sandwich. Or an occasional treat, if you were watching your diet. Pizza… Pizza was different. A dish born in the italian peninsula, you'd gather a bunch of dough together and some marinara sauce. You'd toss the dough into a large, flat disk shape and curl the edges inward to make a sort of flat pie crust. Then, spread the marinara all over the inside of the pie bowl and cover that with cheese. Bake it for, oh… I'd say twelve to fifteen minutes is good for a twelve inches diameter, give or take a few depending on how thick the crust is. Such a simple dish needed a bit of finesse to make though because of the dough. And it was goddamn delicious in a way little else could be. Oh! As a bonus, calzones. Same as pizza, but you roll it up so the cheese and tomato sauce is bundled up in a pocket of dough. God, the Italians and the French both were so good at cuisine. Every little culture had their masterpieces, but those two especially…"

My stomach started rumbling.

"Bah, just thinking about it is making me hungry. Alright- Now, we've got plenty of other things to cook! Who wants fried fish?"

-=-=-=-
-=Episode 7/p1 - Venison=-

:: i got hungry so a good fifth of this chapter was written from within a subway

i hope i made you hungry too

and because i've been cheating you lot out of an estimate fifty to a hundred words per chapter for the last few chapters, have a few hundred extra here