[X] Three, alongside a robot of some sort that seemed to be acting up.
"Big place." Yang noted, as she walked through the halls. "Is this the Schnee Manor?"
"Guest house, actually." Two corrected, as she led Yang through. "Uh, sorry about having to give everyone separate rooms that are so far away. One says there's some sort of law or something about how the adults can't be too close to all the kids because it'd take too long to make sure everyone had permissions, and Ruby had to be near the back because of the dog, Zwei."
"No issue." Yang shrugged off. "But seriously, guest house? You guys can afford to use a guest house this big?"
"I know!" Two replied. "And the actual Schnee Manor is even bigger! And then there's all the other guest places, too. One and Winter managed to get one of the old guest houses for me to use to keep all the kids, you know."
"How are they, anyway?" Yang asked. "I don't think I've checked in a while. Those kids went through a lot."
"They're alright." Two chirped. "I mean, not too good, but they're about okay. I've been trying to get a bunch of books that'll let me understand what they're going through. Some of them saw their homes burn down, some of them saw relatives die. The nightmares are coming less frequently these days. Most of them are recovering, I think? I don't know. They're doing better than before."
"That's good." Yang replied, nodding. "And how about..."
She trailed off, unsure how to continue.
"You mean Nightingale and the Undine?" Two asked. "Those two are..."
She took a moment to think about how to phrase her next statement, and sighed.
"Nightingale's not good." Two admitted. "She's improving a bit. Still looks like she doesn't eat enough, but she can eat richer foods without getting sick now. The Undine hovers around her and doesn't talk, but Nightingale keeps getting all twitchy whenever people try to talk to her."
"I'm assuming you've kept her away from Winter?" Yang asked. "I mean, she did kinda overreact when she thought I'd killed her dad, and then Winter wasn't exactly gentle when she was claiming responsibility."
"Winter hasn't dropped by, no." Two nodded. "Hey, it feels like forever ago we did that, doesn't it? Back when we first met, and Winter was there, and Piran and Blast were there. A lot's happened since then."
"I know." Yang noted, trying not to think about how most of that was her getting injured.
"It might do her some good to talk to you, though." Two replied. "Going back to Nightingale, I mean. She overheard some other kids talking about how you saved them and then started looking really guilty over in her corner. I think she feels bad about the whole thing where she nearly killed you."
Yang sighed. "I'm not gonna pretend I'm not still a little sore about that, to be honest."
"Does your neck still hurt?" Two asked, looking concerned. "I know a little bit of massages, you know. Tried to learn a bit because One thought it'd help me control my strength and she seemed stressed so I asked to practice on her from time to time. I can try and help with your neck if-"
"Figure of speech." Yang interrupted.
"Ooh." Two replied, nodding. "Sorry. Explain it?"
"She tried to kill me while I was injured and in a hospital." Yang explained. "I'm... Well, that's kind of the major memory I have of her. I understand she wasn't in a good place, but that doesn't change the fact that the first thing that comes to mind whenever I think about her is her shooting me with a harpoon which had nearly killed me the last time it was used, followed by trying to choke me out."
"Ah." Two realised. "You're still a bit upset?"
"I know it's not too fair." Yang admitted. "Before then, she was having a breakdown, so it's obvious she was kind of on edge. It's just a bit hard to think logically about, you know, near murder."
"That's fine, that's fine." Two assured her. "But if you think you can manage it later, well, you said you know she wasn't stable at the time. Do you think you could talk to her about it if you think you won't scare her by being upset? If she hears you say it's understandable, it might do her some good."
"I'll think about it." Yang replied, as the two turned a corner.
Two paused, and looked around.
"I think I got distracted when talking." Two noted, looking around. "I have no idea where we are."
"...Really?" Yang asked.
"I can handle this." Two replied, turning around. "We'll retrace our steps and find our way back to where we started and go from there."
"Or we can ask for directions." Yang suggested. "I'm pretty sure I can hear some footsteps coming from nearby, we could go talk to them?"
"Good idea!" Two replied, nodding. She tilted her head to lift her ear, and turned towards the source of the sound.
"Hm..." Two mused. "Two people, one of them heavy... Oh hey, come on Yang, I don't think you've met my sister yet."
Two paused.
"My other sist- Hold on, Five, One, Four... I don't think you've met my other other other sister."
"Three, or Zero?" Yang asked. "You mentioned them all once but-"
"We still haven't found Zero." Two replied, looking down and sad for a moment. "One's got a plan, though. She ended up working high up with the Schnee, basically running everything until Weiss isn't in mourning now, and she's trying to make enough of a name to get Zero's attention so she'll come to us."
"So Three, then." Yang replied, changing the subject as soon as she noticed Two's sad expression. That last missing sister must be bothering her or something. "Wasn't she the smart one? Experimented a lot, helped you figure out how to cook Grimm?"
"Hey, you remembered that!" Two exclaimed, with a smile threatening to split her face. "I mentioned her like once months ago!"
"You're a memorable person." Yang shrugged.
Two's smile somehow got even bigger.
"You're being too loud." A voice droned from the side. Turning to the side, Yang came face to face with an older woman with long purple hair, hanging around her ankles. She was fiddling with some sort of mechanical contraption in her hands, which she was looking down at as Yang and Two looked at her.
"Uh, Three." Two pointed out. "You've forgotten about your hair."
Three paused, looking at the contraption in her hand in the process, and took a step back. Her heel hit the end strands of her hair, and her head was tugged back and down by the pull.
"So I have." Three noted, looking back. "Scissors."
Behind her, another figure stepped into view. It was a mechanical automation, covered in red and orange metal parts. Most of the body seemed to be concealed by some form of armour covering, with a helmet keeping the head in place with a black visor over where the face would be. There was a right light vaguely shining through the right side of the visor, but apart from that, it was impossible to see inside.
Around the neck, there was some exposure, with some mechanical wires showing and some electronics lined up along where the throat would be. The robot was holding a box full of metal scrap, and looked ahead blankly at Three's order.
Three waited for another moment, before sighing. "I said scissors."
The robot didn't respond.
"Kleos." Three intoned. The robot suddenly stumbled forward, tightening the box closer to it's chest.
"This is annoying." Three sighed, as she explained. "I've put so much effort into my doll, and it keeps acting up. I have to keep restarting the system. Pietas."
A moment passed, before the robot's grip on the box loosened, and it slowly, rigidly, put the box down. Once the box was on the ground, the robot pulled a pair of scissors from out of it's elbow, and passed them to Three.
"I'm not sure I understand the problem." Two noted, frowning.
"You wouldn't even if I explained." Three sighed, before looking at Yang.
"Try?" Yang asked.
Three carelessly cut back at her long hair, cutting around the base of her neck and letting the body length strands of hair fall to the ground. "I guess. All automata require some sort of artificial intelligence to operate independently, as dumb as it is. The smartest ones we get are still dumb artificial intelligence's, less intelligent and more programmed to react to the situation it needs to be. The point remains that there are situations in which they need to be programmed for and others in which they need to be specifically ordered, and the robots are installed with loyalty and control chips to properly react to the situations they require when programmed or ordered."
Yang went a bit cross eyed, at the sudden acceleration of Three's speech.
"I borrowed someone elses creation for the base of my doll, a fighter of some sort, programmed to fight. Enforcing control is boring, compared to creating new parts, so I usually just keep it locked away so that old intelligence can't cause problems. I'm testing the control now, but the parts in question are cheap, it seems. The old programming keeps interfering with the orders and I'd rather not erase the memory on those parts, because I would have to reteach it too many things. Turning it off and back on fixes the issue because it scrambles the thing enough that only my orders are properly comprehended."
The robot thing picked the box back up, as Three finished cutting through her hair. With that done, Three lazily stabbed backwards, into the robots arm.
"So basically, there's outdated programming on the hard drive which keeps causing glitches when it conflicts with new programming and you just need to restart the system to stop the glitch?"
"I just explained that." Three replied, leaning against the wall.
Two frowned. "Three, don't go to sleep-"
Three snored, her mechanical contraption falling out of her hand in the process. The robot thing caught it as it fell, and put it in the box, before putting the box on the ground and sweeping Three off her feet.
As Three fell back without awakening, the mechanical figure put out one arm to catch the back of Three's head, by her neck, and the other arm caught her thighs. The arm by Three's neck moved to the centre of her back, and was raised to support her higher, before the robot started walking off.
"...Weren't we going to ask for directions?" Yang asked.
Two sighed. "Three fell asleep again. In the middle of the hall. She even programmed her robot thing to carry her around but won't just make some coffee? I know it tastes weird but you kinda need it sometimes to stay up late."
"It's an acquired taste." Yang replied. "I've taken some when I need to work on an assignment and stay up late for that, you get used to it."
"Yeah." Two nodded, as she watched the red and orange robot doll carry Three away. "Well, I suppose I should take Three's stuff to her room..."
A thought occurred to Yang. "Hey, do you know where Three's room in relation to everything else is?" Yang asked.
Two blinked. "Hey, yeah! We could go to Three's room and then from there we can find yours! Good idea!"
Yang nodded, and noticed that Two's grip on the box tightened in her excitement.
"...Do you want me to carry that?" Yang asked.
Two thought about it for a moment.
"Maybe I shouldn't hold this." Two admitted. "This does look like just random junk to me but some of it might just be expensive machine stuff that Three will want and I don't want to accidentally upset her by breaking anything."
She passed the box to Yang, and as Yang grabbed the box, Two looked down at her muscled arms, frowning.
"...Is something wrong?" Yang asked. "People don't usually look at guns like that and look sad, Two."
Two almost said something, then stopped, and thought about it for a moment.
"Metaphor?" She asked.
"Guns can be used as slang for muscles." Yang explained.
"Ah." Two nodded. Then she stopped nodding. "I don't get it. How are these guns? They don't shoot anything."
"I honestly have no idea, it's just how the slang works I guess."
Two shrugged. "Well, a lot of things confuse me, so I guess I shouldn't think about it. Let's get you to your room, Yang."
And with that, Two quickly ran ahead to catch up to the robot carrying away Three, and after a moment, Yang ran after her, careful to try and balance the box in her arms.
When Yang arrives at Three's room to put the box away...
[X] Three has stirred awake a bit, and is lazily writing something down.
[X] There was a beeping scroll, which was failing to wake Three up.
[X] An old man is waiting by her front door, looking concerned as the robot carries her in.