[$] The End [VampuricWerewolf]

[Your Missing Period]

"Oh. Yes we have. Thirteen times in fact. I apologize. I will be replacing the word ejaculate with expel in my vocal dictionary as we speak. There. It is completed." He looked at his bloody and chunky self. Majority of the chunks had fallen off, hands moving to brush off the rest and listening. "A bath? Sir we-- Monoki what are you doing?!" he exclaimed in programmed shock. "Sir please do not roll around in the sand! There could be snakes! Monoki!" he exclaimed, taking a few steps forward and watching the human writhe on the ground.

"M-Monoki sir, please. There could be all sorts of contaminants in the dirt. Radiation, poison, broken glass. I really would prefer you not injure yourself! Sir please keep that from your genitals those are the last things we need to get infected! I do not have medicines pertaining to those sorts of diseases!"  

[VampuricWerewolf]

"Good lord," Momo looked over at Hal as he stood up, much cleaner than he had been, "calm down. if the area around here was contaminated, you would have sensed it and had us move, right?" he brushed off the left over dirt, "and i wasn't rolling in it, i was scooping it up and rubbing it, i would have felt any glass." he looked over himself and except for his hair, he was as clean as he was going to get. "and it worked rather well." he grabbed his pack which had, thankfully, been spared since it was on his back and blocked by his body, and pulled out a new set of clothes. "we should put my dirty clothes in a bag so they don't get everything messy."  

[Your Missing Period]

"Goodness gracious, Monoki. You should warn me before you do that." Not that it would have helped, and his emotional response was accurate. "And you cannot always depend on me for giving warning to radioactive areas, sir. I have told you many times there are signs to what is and isn't dangerously radioactive." Hal shook his head, blonde hair flapping, blood drying on his being. "Irrelevant if the bath works. When we find water we will have to wash our clothes for they are all we have on our backs." And technically Hal didn't need his considering his chassis. If Momo needed clothes he could wear these. "Let us continue, sir. But first," he moved back to the carcass, slicing off some chunks and quickly swallowing them, the meat being stored. "In case it is good to eat."  

[VampuricWerewolf]

Momo nodded, "yeah, we both are going to stink until then." he waited for Hal to eat the meat before heading the direction they had run, following the hoof prints. "wonder if the dog's gonna follow us or run off on it's own. since it came to us for help, it's probably been someone's pet." he frowned at the dog, it was all the beast's fault they were attacked and stinky now after all. "so, now the search for water is even more important. hey, maybe the dog can sniff it out for us, they were suppose to have super noses or something, but i bet you could sniff it out too, huh?" he looked at Hal and imagined him walking around, bent at the waist, sniffing everything like a dog would and laughed, shaking his head. "you two can work together. we were heading this way, right? i'm not mixed up?"  

[Your Missing Period]

Your Missing Period

"It may have done it purely out of--" The maned wolf decided to walk between the android's legs, nearly throwing him off balance, having to crouch down to do so before sliding out and continuing to walk. "Perhaps it will follow. Who knows." Though it didn't seem completely interested in them, walking in the same direction they were, just ahead of them.

"Water is incredibly important. I could clean you off with any water I've had stored, though we'll need to open my chassis to remove it. I'm quite sure you would not appreciate me spitting it back up." Though the dog hardly seemed to be sniffing, just walking. "Sir? I would not be able to smell out water from underground even in good conditions. I believe there may be blood in my nostrils." and blew through his nose, nothing coming out. "I may need something to blow in to." Though for some reason that produced a laugh from Momo. "That is correct. We are in the right direction. Just follow the hoof prints."

 

[VampuricWerewolf]

Momo snorted at the idea of Hal 'blowing' anything out into something else. he rummaged around his clothes and pulled out a cloth he used for oil when he whatever he was working on spilled, "here, blow into this." he grinned again and shook his head, "And no, we won't waste drinking water on that. maybe we should head for the ocean, i heard the poisoning is naturally being filtered by the salt and if you can get all the salt out, you've a big supply of drinking water. most people can't get it out, though, but i bet you could, Hal." he looked at the dog and shook his head a little. looks like they had a pet. one more mouth to feed, great. "then we could bathe as much as we like, though we might have to worry about rust." he looked at his arm and remembered his father saying that it was a special metal of his own blend, one that would not rust and would not break, but Hal was a lot older that his arm and wasn't made of the same metal.  

[Your Missing Period]

"Oh, thank you." He took it, pressing it against his nostril and gave a rough snort, feeling the foreign objects slide out. Moving it away he cleaned the artificial skin, looking at the mess on the fabric. "Oh dear. I am very sorry about this." He looked at it while listening to Momo, storing the words away in a folder on his hard drive. "The ocean is a good day or two walk, sir, at the very least. You have not eaten for six hours, we would need at least three to four days to walk there in your current condition."

"The sound of you washing yourself in radioactive waters does not please me, even if the salt is filtering it. We really should find fresh water." he murmured, but with the food and the dead bird he had to open his chassis to remove, there was little storage space for water. "I can do many things, however filtering salt out, especially in large quantities, would require me to have a new filter shortly thereafter. If we are to go to the ocean it would be best to prepare, Monoki."

At the mention of rust he nodded again. "Unfortunately many of my exposed metal joins are created from the same materials as the U.S. penny, however it was put under a lot of stress to make it strong for what I use it for. I would rust very easily if not thoroughly dried. My skin however is waterproof, so my internal processors would remain dry."  

[VampuricWerewolf]

Momo sighed, "then i guess the ocean is out." he was a little depressed about that, he had always wanted to see the ocean, but not at the expense of Hal. "so, we're off to find some fresh water, as always, or civilization, which is unlikely. same old, same old." he thought back to when he'd last ate, had it really been that long? they had been mostly walking since then. he'd always been a scrawny guy, but when little he had was muscle. even so, he still had had a hard time when they started out. the walking for hours on end had worn him out quickly, but now he could walk for a full day and hardly tire. "as soon as we find shelter, i'll eat. deal?"  

[Your Missing Period]

There was this small tone of disappointment in the red-head's voice, blue eyes looking over to analyze his features. But it was there, even as he continued speaking, and it made something in him feel tight in his abdomen. Another pull on his wiring? Pressure on microchips? Perhaps it would be best to go to the ocean.

No, absolutely not it was not safe there. What an odd and dangerous conclusion to arrive at. Going to the ocean. Why not dip the human in radioactive slime? It would have the same affect.

Calculations showed it wouldn't. Momo would die slowly int he ocean and quickly in the slime assuming the slime was of thicker density, at least gelatin base then calculating how much radiation was in a cubic meter of air if it was condensed into water...

"Yes, sir. I am sorry we must avoid the ocean. Fresh water is our main priority, and other signs of life." He looked around, down at the ground and to the dog. "The mammal changes the scenery." he offered.  

[VampuricWerewolf]

Momo nodded, "yeah, it's not wandering off, staying just ahead of us. it has to have been trained." he looked the dog over, "wonder if there's some kid crying over his lost pet somewhere over there." he looked in the direction the dog had come from, "of if he's nothing but meat now." that's all they were, right? they lived, they died and then they became meat for the next creature that came by to pick up. "can't do much about it now, can we? he'll stick around until he gets eaten or sick of us and then that's that." he shrugged, "how many hours until dark?" he looked at the sun and guessed, but Hal would know down to the second, knowing him.  

[Your Missing Period]

"That must be a very sad yet realistic thing to think about, Momo." he pointed out, frowning a bit as was encoded. A child without their guardian...

He looked over at Monoki, brows creased in worry and concern. What if it was Momo without him? How on earth would this fragile, stubborn human survive?

"You are correct. There is little we can do in our current situation. What you have described is Darwinism, and in this environment you can definitely practice what he preached." But something seemed to be, causing distress, in his programming, and it went back to this creature having someone to protect.

"Four hours and thirty-seven minutes, until dark. Some of my programming appears to not be working. It is minor programming, not needed for every day functions and I will be able to continue without it. This reboot will take two minutes and thirty seven seconds unless you would prefer a safety check." The human sounding voice gained a sterilized edge, sounding like the machine he was.  

[VampuricWerewolf]

Momo looked over, worried. was the sand getting to Hal's systems? no, that couldn't be right, he was fully enclosed and could only be accessed when manually opened. the last time they had done that was just before leaving his father's home, so there wasn't an opportunity for sand to get in. "go ahead, take as much time as you need," he stopped and looked around, shielding his eyes from the sun so he could see better. they had passed the place where they had turned and run from the horses a little bit ago, so this was a new horizon to look at. in the far distance he thought he saw a dark blob, but his weak human eyes couldn't make out what it was. at least there wasn't a dust cloud coming from it. "Hal-" he looked back, "oh yeah. rebooting, i'll ask when you wake up."  

[Your Missing Period]

"Thank you, sir. I will try to get this done as quickly as possible." He took his final step and stood still, "Closing programs... shutting down." his body went rigid, body now more robot like as his head nodded down and his eyelids closed. He couldn't hear the wind, feel the heat, he was, in every sense of the word, dead.

System Starting... Systems check.... Checking Hard drives... Opening Programs...

The head stood upright, blue eyes half-lidded as test continued. Body twitches, internal whirring, the focus on his eyes.

"Internal functions complete." Came the robotic voice, head finally looking up and looking blankly. "SENSES programs fully functional. Voice recognition required from "Momoki." Please, list emotions for me to copy to ensure that my EMOTIONS program is working." Lifeless, dull, a slave to programming. Luckily once he tried out the emotions listed, Hal would go back to being Hal-like.  

[VampuricWerewolf]

Momo never liked when Hal did this. he was always scared he wouldn't wake up. he still had nightmares about shaking someone, crying, begging them to wake up, but they never did. problem was, he couldn't tell if it was his father, hal or his mother who had died when he was ten years old, it changed every time. but Hal's eyes opened and he asked for the usual, a list of emotions, like a check list. "Happy, sad, angry, worried, annoyed, embarrassed, curious, serious, eureca, disappointment, excited, evil, fighting." he listed, adding a few to his father's list that he himself had come up with over the years. "all systems go?" he asked, looking over Hal carefully, "did i miss any?"  

[Your Missing Period]

Taking in the list he waited until it was finished before acting out the emotions, happy, grinning, eyebrows arched up, eyes crinkles with the cheek muscles, dimples. Sad, brows arched downwards, chin tucked in and looking at Momo through blonde eyelashes, worried, torn between being alert and nervous.

It continued one right after the other, body language, along with his facial features, accurately portraying what his database of images and programming told him it looked like. "All programs are fully functional. Booting A.I."

And after a few more seconds the light returned back to Hal's eyes, pupils focusing for a moment before shaking his head. "Everything is in working order, my programming is in working condition and the minor programming issue has been resolved. Thank you very much. Shall we continue? My sensors showed you had a question, but due to my restarting I was unable to record it. Could you ask again?"