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The golems were functional again, but something had gone wrong somewhere; Ferros was still unsettled by the alterations. The golem body's build seemed lighter and more streamlined than it normally did, perhaps more delicate, if that could be said of riveted, jointed metal, but it was the extra attachments that were really unnerving. While they weren't visible beneath the trousers and vest, their presence was confusing and faintly alarming, and Ferros really didn't quite know what any of them did.

Also, he felt vaguely like he ought to be she at the moment. He'd never been strongly attached to the pronouns, picking the masculine forms mostly on impulse. It hadn't mattered. It probably still didn't, but she still felt weird about it.

She'd been in the pod room, though not for long. Answering questions about what she was doing there without her hunter would be awkward. It wasn't as though she'd wanted to be out for long, really, but when the use of the golem cost in runestones, she wasn't entirely comfortable with returning immediately, either. She'd assured Jordan that she was okay, though it had taken some convincing.

It was difficult to be inconspicuous when you were nearly seven feet tall, and after a few odd looks, she opted to leave the labs for the training fields. She could destroy a few dummies, perhaps. That wouldn't require anything special, just the heavy claws she'd been built with.



((Using the genderswap golem prompt~))

Ferros recognized Thackery, of course, but it was natural that he wouldn't recognize her, not in this shape. The disappointment didn't make sense. She was a little surprised that he didn't have a handler attending him. "I'm Ferros. I came out to hit the dummies, but you probably shouldn't," she replied, tilting her head a little to angle her mouth into a smile. "If they see you swatting something shaped like a human, they might not like it. Are you bored? I can stay out a while longer."

Ferros shook her head, her red glass eyes flickering in a startled blink. "Nobody is mad. I am just walking because I do not want to be in the labs with techs looking at me funny. Who is the she that you're referring to? Am I assuming right, that you are a visitor and not a weapon now, Thackery?" Her head tilted a little sideways, and a ripple ran down her heavy tail. "Mark did not let me out. My hunter did. I won't be out very long, because I don't like it when I can't hear him and I don't have another reason to be out right now, past testing golems."

Ferros nodded solemnly. "I was asleep for a while once, and he was very, very upset," she said. "I was sorry I could not be there to help."

She tilted her head in an echo of Thackery's gesture. "You know me, but you do not know you know me," she said. "When you have seen me, I have been a hammer. I am Jordan's weapon. The Blue King's advisor," she added, to clarify.

Ferros blinked in surprise and awkwardly, carefully folded her arms around Thackery, patting him gently on the back. "I did not expect you to recognize me. This is a weapons golem. It lets me use the body I had before I was a weapon, for a short time. Though there is something a little wrong with it today; usually I am closer to male. Do not hurt yourself. I have hard edges," she said. "We are well enough." She hesitated, considering how much of the current situation she should tell him. "Their mate has been ill," she settled on, "so we have been worried, but he will be well soon. Tracey will heal him. We keep our Hunters healthy," she added, with a note of pride in her voice.

Ferros blinked again, trying to untangle the threads of Thackery's statements in a way that made sense to her. She wasn't entirely sure she was following what he meant, but the good wishes at least she understood, and nodded to accept them. "Thank you."

"I will have to explain a little to explain that," she said, and folded herself down to sit on the ground with a creak of metallic joints. She curled her tail comfortably around her legs. "When we bond with our hunters, our Fear weaves into their bodies. We use their senses, we hear their thoughts and feelings, and we feel their pain and joy. Humans heal much more slowly than Fear creatures do, but when they bond with weapons, our Fear speeds their healing. If it is a close bond, the healing is faster and more complete, because we are a deeper part of them. When Jordan has gotten hurt, if we rest and I don't have to pay attention to anything else, I can help it along and he will feel better sooner." She tilted her head. "Humans are fragile, but Hunters use our Fear shields and do not get so hurt so easily."

"Our minds are together," Ferros explained. "He still feels his own feelings, but I can help him calm down if he needs to calm down, most of the time." She paused, thinking over what she wanted to say. "Some terrible things have happened to us, and sometimes I need to remind him that we are in the real world and he is okay. But I do help. I can feel it. We're very close," she said, with a note of pride in her voice. "We're two halves. Not one, but not quite two any more."

Her tail thumped on the ground with a rattle of joints. "We have had two and a half years to bond, and when he trains every day we bring our minds closer so that we can be a good pair. I chose him because he is strong and persistent. We have been friends from the start." She tilted her head, the glow in her eyes muting. "Some weapons do not like their Hunters. I don't understand that. Why would you choose a human you could not like? It does not make a good strong bond, and we are in their minds until death. I could not be bonded to someone I did not like."

"We can handle the terrible stuff in other places a little better." Ferros puffed a wisp of steam from the pipes on her shoulders. "Terrible stuff that happens here is harder."

"I think so, yes," she said, the angle of her mouth taking on a troubled cast. "Some weapons do not like humans much at all. I like being a weapon, I am a good weapon," she added quickly. "Sometimes I would wish to talk to others more easily, but mostly I do not mind, and Jordan is good about saying what I have asked him to say for me. Though sometimes they do not believe that he has told the truth about what I have said."