Arrival (Invite only)

Sentinel stepped off the train with his charge in hand, she was a little sad about the fact that they had to leave Ueitawa, but went along knowing that Sentinel wouldn't do anything to harm her. Not to mention the fact that Sentinel had promised that there would be plenty of beaches to visit. She loved to swim almost as much as she loved to read. Almost. The white haired android stepped off the train, he was taking his first footsteps on San Malarus island. It seemed to be the urban area, so he assumed that housing here would be much cheaper than elsewhere. He would have to re-establish his job as a web designer again, but fortunately he had some additional cash from the stock market. Why humans struggled to play that entity successfully was beyond him.

Maria on the other hand skipped forward her pink backpack bouncing as she did, "So this is our new place?" She asked Sentinel, who gave her a nod.

"It is Maria this is San Malarus Island, we will be living here for a long time, I hope." He would say, and Maria gave his a slightly unsatisfied huff.

"You have to be more positive than that Senty! Remember what I told you a long time ago? Smiles and sugar make everyone happy!" Sentinel simply nodded, and stepped out of the train with their suitcases. A bag meant to carry a laptop was hanging by his waist while he looked around. He saw Maria running toward a poster, and he followed her. She looked at the green haired woman on the poster, before looking at Sentinel with wide eyes in awe. "Is she a fairy princess?"

Sentinel laughed, surprisingly, "No, I'm afraid not Maria." He would say as he read the poster, "Come see the famous Cuore and her leading act at the Biggest Top circus. She must be a circus performer of some kind." Maria bounced a little bit at that, before giving Sentinel pretty puppy dog eyes like Gabby told her to do.

"Can we pwease go see it! Pweeeassseee!"

Sentinel smiled and rubbed her head a bit, "Of course we can, once we get settled we'll make plans to go. I'll even get you cotton candy." That caused Maria's eyes to widen, and smile brightly at him, "But first we have to go to the hotel, come on." He would say as he led the way to leave the station.

Eve_02 had been rebooted.

It was as simple as that.

Restarted, memories erased as if nothing that had happen had ever taken place. Ueitawa was long behind her, something the android would never remember seeing. Deleted and destroyed from her database. The knowledge she had gathered, connections she had made were lost. Had she died? Some argue that she might have, the very thing she feared brought upon her when she had gone to look for her lost friend, as the man who had created and abandoned her in the first place wanted his second chance at creating the perfect being. Luckily, she couldn't remember how that had happened. It was as though her fear had never existed, as lost to her memories as was the time she had spent with Ruo and when she had met Sentiel before in the construction yard, wondering about her reflection.

She still kept the purple stone with her, though, the one which Ruo had given to her almost on accident, always within the palm of her left hand.

But not all things were lost. She was still very much the same person she was before, as it is impossible to reprogram even an artificial soul. Old habits die hard, they said, and such was more than true for her. Her curious spirit could never be erased, the fatal flaw that her creator could never get rid of no matter how hard he tried. She had even reached for the same book, fallen upon that same page she had the last time she had reached for the apple of knowledge.

In the end, she was still Rosewater. Curious, intelligent yet inexperienced, confused but happy. She was free to explore as she wished, having nothing to tie her down, no duties or concerns as she explored the fascinating world around her. She wouldn't have wanted it any other way, and today had been trying to solve the mystery of what seemed to bring so many people in and out each day in San Malurus. Her creator had moved here after the chaos in Iwaigodai, though she didn't know that.

What she was trying to figure out at the moment was why so many people seem to come and go from this entrance all the time, not walking out of whatever this place was. A "Station", right? It certainly didn't work like the 'restaurants'  she sometimes looked at, where people would walk back out again after enough time once they had entered. This place seemed to bring forth people that she had never seen walk in at specific times.

Should Sentinel catch sight of her, she wouldn't change her ever-present child-like smile, looking over him and Maria with great interest, taking in every detail of what she saw. She didn't remember him, and hadn't yet learned the concept of greetings or introductions.

Sentinel looked away from the poster that Maria was eyeballing with great interest. He scanned the crowd around him, no one had their eyes on him from what he could tell, that was until he saw Rosewater. His red eyes would widen in surprise, had she followed them here? Surely not, she did not have any ill intentions toward him from their last meeting. Perhaps this was just a coincidence? Well rather than let a possible problem fester and grow he decided the best course of action would be to confront it. Maria's guardian would take her by the hand and give her a slight tug as an indication she should follow before making a beeline for Rosewater. His pace was calm and his body language shared that trait.

"Rosewater, what are you doing here? Are you moving from the Ueitawa region as well?" Sentinel would inquire, she seemed so fascinated by them. He was slightly concerned because based off their last meeting she was not well versed in the customs of the human world. She was kind enough, but undoubtedly curious. He just hoped she had not gotten into trouble since their last meeting, perhaps she had learned more. It would be fairly interesting to see what she had learned since then, she was a curious infant when he had met her, but perhaps she had matured in character and knowledge.

Maria looked up to Rosewater before looking back at Sentinel, "Is this a friend of yours Senty?" Sentinel looked down at Maria, and offered her a smile before replying.

"Well given how this is only our second time meeting, I wouldn't say we're at that level yet, but we are friendly acquaintances. We met back in Ueitawa, Iwagodai specifcally." His memory banks had brought up the relevant information of their first meeting, he still had his logs about how it went and his initial observations. He browsed through those to ensure that he was not placing Maria in any risk, while he was initially unsure of her, he would use this meeting to confirm whether or not she was trustworthy. Maria, on the other hand, looked up at her with childish affection and curiosity. She loved meeting new people! Maria would offer her a handshake with a wide grin.

"Well any friend of Senty is a friend of mine! I'm Maria Farren! Nice to meet you Rosewater!" The young girl would state. Sentinel sighed a bit, he would have to remind Maria to call him Alphonse in public, and to be careful around people she had not met. He barely knew Rosewater, and here she was making friends with her. He warned her about the dangers strangers posed you never knew what sick twisted individuals were out there, ones that preyed upon children....what were they called again? Ah yes, pedophiles. While he doubted Rosewater was like that at all, he just didn't want Maria to run the risks. Then again he had to admit that Maria had an innate talent for meeting kind people, and those who she really liked.

Sentinel sometimes found it difficult for him to second guess his eleven year old companion's judgement, it was fairly ironic how an eleven could prove an android with advanced logical processing wrong.

"What?" Rosewater blinked a few times as she heard her name being used, looking rather confused at Sentiel's questions. It should have been obvious in her face that she didn't recognize who he was. How had he known her name if she had given it to herself, though? She was rather certain that all information had to learned, right? Why did he already know that? She tilted her head to the side, concern washing away her bright smile as she wondered if she should have known about this "Ueitawa" region as well. She felt as though she should have, thumb stroking the stone within her left palm in a nervous habit.

"As far as I can recall, I've been here since my activation. I haven't moved anywhere. Not too far from my creator's home at least, though he has made it rather clear that he doesn't want me around anymore." He had been more violent this time, angry. He had nearly struck her. She didn't know this, of course, only that she had been rather 'afraid', as her mind told her "I'm simply exploring what the world has to offer, at the moment. " It was the best answer she could give him, even if she felt as though it wasn't enough.

To add further confusion to her situation was the other Android's claim that they had met before. There was definitely something wrong here. There had been knowledge that she forgotten, though she couldn't piece together why. It was making her 'nervous'. She shifted from one foot to the other as a response to this new 'emotion', though it wasn't as powerful as it had been when she had been with her creator. Just a little uneasy about the situation.

"Did we? I'm afraid I don't remember. The name of the place doesn't sound familiar to me at all. I apologize." She looked down for a moment, piecing together any clues she could that would tell her why she seemed to have forgotten so much. Her thoughts were interrupted by Maria's warm greeting. A soft smile came upon her in response.



"You as well, Ms. Farren. It's a great pleasure." She meant it as, well, new people were always an exciting thing to come across, after all. Each with their own stories to tell and knowledge to share that she had yet to know.

"Though, Senty" she began to say, using the name that she had heard Maria refer to him as, thinking it was his true name "I do remember my creator asking me why I kept 'turning out as a soul already tainted with sin' no matter how many adjustments he made...is it possible that he was trying to erase my memories in order to... " a slight pause as she searched for the right word in her imense vocabulary database "Purify me? If so, he must have given up on me..."

Now it was Sentinel's turn to be surprised by the fact she didn't remember him. Did she really have amnesia, was it possible for androids to get that human condition? He didn't think so, and while he had only met her once before he got a feel for how she appreciated knowledge. She was like a sponge when she learned something new, she soaked it up, but would not release it. It reminded him about the time when he was first introduced to the world all those years ago, his eyes got a distant look as he looked past Rosewater. He almost missed another piece of critical information. She said that she hasn't strayed far from where her creator was and she didn't recall moving or the Ueitawa region itself. The previous time she had separated from her creator....did her creator have something to do with this? An image of Maria's father sprung forth to his mind.

Yes, he knew that not all humans were kind, some became obsessed with an idea or concept. If he recalled correctly, her creator had an obsession too, though he could not recall what it was exactly. However, he noted that she was kind and seemed interested to meet Maria. Who bounced up and down a bit, that was one interest they shared. The two liked to meet new people regardless of their past. Then she used, Maria's nickname to address him, he would patiently wait for her to finish her explanation. So she thought her creator might have had something to do with it too, and given what he knew...it seemed like he did. First he would politely correct her, "Please, call me Sentinel."

His younger companion would give Rosewater a somewhat mischievous grin, "Call him Senty! He likes it!" Sentinel would sigh a bit, she was quite persistent about that nickname. Then he would respond to the rest, he was somewhat concerned for her.

"Well he has made his decision, but do you not have any shelter or help? Is there anything we can do to assist you?" Sentinel would ask, he was programmed to take care of Maria, therefore he was by his very nature (or programming) caring. While he did not know Rosewater well, he did not want her to be placed into a bad situation. Maria on the other hand seemed to be a little upset that someone would place her new friend in a bad situation!

"Well, your creator sounds like a big meanie! You have new friends now! Like Senty and I!"

"Sentinel" she repeated correcting herself as quickly as she could once he had informed her that 'Senty' was not his true name after all. The android's eyebrows furrowed together in confusion for a moment as to why Maria seemed to have misunderstood his name, but then soon realized it must have just been a shortened version of it that the small girl in front of her liked to call him. She tilted her head to the side for a second, thinking as to who she should listen to when it came to figuring out what to call him. As much as she wanted to trust the girl who was looking to her with an excited smile, she had to admit that she had a hard time believing that the other robot would lie about what he liked to be called best.

"Are you sure about that Maria? It doesn't seem to be that way."

Her attention turned back to Sentinel once he questioned her about her current state, and she looked away for in idle thought before she faced him with an answer once again. Checking her systems to make sure that she wasn't damaged in any way (what that meant, she still hadn't figured out yet), digging through her vocabulary database to try and find what he meant by 'shelter' and why she would require it.

"I..don't believe so, no. I appear to be fine, and whenever there's rain I can usually find 'shelter' under something.." as far as Rosewater knew, she was doing perfectly well, as the concept and dangers of being 'homeless' where things she had yet to learn.

She blinked a few times at that new word. "friends". Strange. She couldn't find any information about it with what was already programmed into her. Did her creator forget to teach her the meaning of that word? That had never happened before. Usually she could understand new vocabulary as soon as she heard it mentioned for the first time. Not for this word apparently. Curious, she'd have to ask about it later.

"My creator did what he thought was best, I'm sure. I believe I just didn't turn out to be what he expected" thankfully, she didn't sound too disappointed about this fact. She knew she couldn't change who she was, what was the use in dwelling on that when there was so much to learn?

"Well, he says he doesn't, but I just think its so much nicer than Sentinel or Alphonse! He'll always be Senty to me!" She would exclaim happily, with childish confidence. Her grin never faltering for a moment. It was a wonder if she was difficult to scold given her seemingly happy face. Sentinel let out a soft sigh, and just shrugged at Rosewater, some things never change. Though he began to listen to Rosewater when she spoke about her current condition. The android said she was fine, and that she would find shelter. That meant her creator had left her out all alone, and no doubt someone of less than pleasant background would take advantage of her naivety. Somewhere other than their hotel and room, it was not that they could not afford it, but....Sentinel wasn't sure whether or not he could trust Rosewater. Though by his very programming he could not simply leave her out all alone.

He was going to reply when he noted her look of confusion when Maria mentioned the word, "friend". Had she not learned about such a concept? Did her creator leave her so ill-equipped to face the world? How foolish of him! Though Rosewater said that she believed that she did not turn out like he expected to her. That struck a resonance with Sentinel, who recalled the day Maria get only a slight bruise from a wild animal, and her father snapped. That day he was labeled a failure, and Maria's father began to move forward with his more insane ideas. Sentinel's gaze drifted off for a moment before he looked back to Rosewater, and spoke.

"Perhaps we can help you find a place for the night where you can stay. I think there are a few ho-" Sentinel would begin until Maria would interrupt him with something that shocked him.

"You can stay with us! It'll be like a sleepover! We can stay up and tell stories and draw pictures! We can even watch cartoons!" Her smile would not fade as Sentinel looked down at her with his mouth agape...what was she thinking? He looked at Rose for a moment before pardoning them for a moment.

"Maria, what are you saying? She's a stranger, we don't know her intentions!" He would say in a whisper. Hs companion gave him an odd look.

"Senty, you know her though! She seems really nice and friendly! What could go wrong! She would like cartoons! Anyone who likes cartoons can't be that bad!"

Sentinel had to realize that Maria still believed in the good in people, and while he had a counter argument, he did not want to change her perception...lest she start to ask sensitive questions. "Maria, you know my rules are to keep you safe. This violates one of the rules, we can set her up in another hotel. I have to take care of you."

"Seeentttyyy." She would whine softly giving her puppy dog eyes, "She would be a good friend. I just want a friend like Gabby! I never got to see her again...please Senty! I have a good feeling about her."

Sentinel paused for a moment, he was a little sad that they could not stay in Uietawa, and that he had failed Maria..but that was no grounds to allow someone dangerous in their lives. Though he felt something on his ring finger, he glanced at Maria's mother's ring. It was the strangest senstation, was this what humans called...a premotion? It was a symbol of Maria's mother, and it was meant to serve as reminder to him. It seemed to push him to agree with Maria for just this one time. Sentinel sighed before nodding, "Alright...we'll have a sleepover." Maria clapped happily at Sentinel's concessions, and her guardian turned around to face Rosewater. "This may seem odd, but Maria and I would be happy to allow you to share a room with us at our hotel. Maria would enjoy it, and I would be happy to help you understand what your creator did not teach you." He knew Rosewater was hungry for knowledge, thus he threw that bone in to sweeten the deal. Maria clapped excitedly and gave Rosewater a bright smile to encourage her to accept the offer.

"A sleepover?" She echoed as Maria made the suggestion, giving her mechanical mind a few seconds to process the word she had just heard, as it was not a common one that she had run across as of yet. A smile tugged at the corner of her lips as she recognized it would mean spending a great amount of time with these two, and she hadn't had experience with extended social interactions yet, so it was an exciting thought.

"My intentions?" she repeated the phrase in such a way that it was clear she didn't know why Sentinel was concerned about this topic. Though perhaps intelligent, she was too innocent to the world still for the thought of harming Maria, or anyone really, for that matter, was not something she could even conceive of at this point. She was still naive to the fact that androids or humans alike could turn against each other,  leave alone the ideas of pain or death. Lessons once learned that she had forgotten when her memory had been wiped.

She felt like she should add more to the small argument that the two seemed to be having by offering her own insight, but decided against it, thinking that the clearly more experienced android would be able to make a better decision than her. She didn't know if she was going to do anything wrong after all, and she certainly didn't want to be a hindrance.  For now she would wait and observe, feet shifting slightly in 'tension' as her fate was decided.

Grin rapidly returned to her face soon enough, though, and she knew her answer immediately.

"That would be delightful!" She brought her hands together in a sort of childlike joy herself "I don't know much about being a 'friend', but I'd certainly try my best to learn anything you could teach me!"

((Apologies for the late and short-ish reply ;; ))

"Then its decided!" Maria would say excitedly as she clasped her hands together.  Returning the grin that Rosewater had, she was a little perplexed when Rose claimed she didn't know much about being a friend, but smiled anyways. "Don't worry! It's super easy! Senty and I will help you!" The young girl would say as she took Rosewater by the hand, and began to lead her out of the subway station more than ready to begin new adventures with her newest friend. "We can start by coloring some of my coloring books! I think you'll like that! Have you ever seen a leopard before? They're really cool!"

Sentinel would smile and quickly catch up to his charge and Rosewater carrying their luggage with him as he did. No doubt, Maria would come up with hundreds of different things to talk about, though he and Rosewater would have a lot to talk about too. Mostly about what she is, and some of the stuff they discussed back when they first met. However, there would be a time and place for such things. However, for now an adventure lies ahead of his and Maria's path. One that perhaps Rosewater will play an integral part in, granted Sentinel is unsure what that part may be.

((exit))

Maria's enthusiastic attitude seemed to be contagious, as seeing the child so 'excited' about the decision that had been made only Rosewater's smile grow wider- something she didn't even know was possible. Her own 'emotions' were always what seemed to surprise her the most. This arrangement took the burden of figuring everything out for herself off her shoulders, something she hadn't even known she should be worried about. But this would make thing easier. Yes. Much easier.

"Oh! Well if I have your help than it shouldn't be too difficult! Ah- I don't know what those are, but I'm certain you're right. I'm eager to learn what leopards are as well!"

She was uncertain of what the future would hold, tomorrow or otherwise, but she was certain that with these new...'friends' of hers, she'd have a a lot fun while she was at it. Why wouldn't she, after all, when there was so much yet to be learned?

((Exit))