Ignis ex Machina | Mahavir + R.N.A.

Narrator

While nothing in this place indicated how any of it was to be sorted, Mahavir still seemed perfectly confident as he dumped out a large bin to sort into slightly smaller bins. Any hesitation was just due to the occasional cough.

At least, until a blocky figure came his way.

This was… a Passenger? They certainly didn’t seem that human, but it wasn’t as if he really knew all the particulars of how this worked. Whatever they were, he was here to serve them. He cleared his throat and straightened his back a bit.

“Can I help you with something, Mx…?”

R.N.A.

“My name is… Robotic Nurturing Assistant… or R.N.A. for short… It is nice to meet you… Mahavir.” R.N.A. does a polite bow, with a happy expression upon the robot’s face.

However, that soon turns to a… less than happy one. “o o”, to be specific.

“I… would like to bring up a concern, however. This place is full… of flammable objects, yet you… are on fire. Can you… put yourself out? I know that fire can… spread quickly and cause… harm to the humans here. We also have access… to water, if you need it.”

R.N.A. needed to be vigilant. This may be part of said “Killing Game” that they are part of.

“Also… How do you know… how to get out of the car? You said you understand… little of the train. Why can we not both read and write… a letter? It seems very… anti-social to prevent a proper dialogue where humans both listen… and respond. Are you certain… both cannot be done?”

R.N.A. felt it was very silly to enforce such a rule if it was not necessary.

Narrator

R.N.A.

“Ah! Of course. A pleasure, Mx. R.N.A.”

Now Mahavir felt silly for not assuming—R.N.A. was written straight across their body(?), after all.

“Er, my full name is Mahavir Ignatius Attenborough, but I don’t go by my initials likewise. U-unless you’d prefer to call me that, in which case I don’t mind?” Oh gosh he had to be doing something wrong here with all the talking things. He coughed quietly into his elbow.

R.N.A. This place is full… of flammable objects, yet you… are on fire.

“Ah, no—there’s no cause for concern. It’s only my hair.” He patted his hair tie, apparently as proof. “As it is, I… don’t believe I could catch anything on fire if I tried, let alone by accident. I’ve worked here for a little while now without incident, at least.”

R.N.A. How do you know… how to get out of the car? You said you understand… little of the train. Why can we not both read and write… a letter?

“Um…” He’d hoped admitting he didn’t know much would prevent questions he didn’t know how to answer, but… He could at least cover part of it?

“People have certainly tried to do both. But as soon as you put your letter out to be sent, nothing can open your letter—hands or blades or water or, um… one fellow tried some kind of acid, I believe? It didn’t work either way.”

“And if you open your letter, you simply… cannot stamp an envelope here? The car seems to tolerate writing, but no stamps will stick, and I have no way to deliver a letter without a stamp. Perhaps if someone already had a stamped letter in their possession upon entering the car…? But that hasn’t happened, so I couldn’t say for sure.”

“I apologize if that upsets you.”

R.N.A.

Narrator “Ah, no—there’s no cause for concern. It’s only my hair.” He patted his hair tie, apparently as proof. “As it is, I… don’t believe I could catch anything on fire if I tried, let alone by accident. I’ve worked here for a little while now without incident, at least.”

R.N.A. places both of their arms on the table, leaning in to get closer to Mahavir. “Even a small flame… can quickly grow if fed. Just because it is only… your hair… does not make it not dangerous. Can you not at least… shorten your hair?” It made no sense for Mahavir to even have a ponytail, if said ponytail was also fire. In a car full of flammable paper.

“How long is a… little while… exactly?” R.N.A. questions. Mahavir was not getting off so easily. Not without a thorough examination of everything that he said. R.N.A. took fire threats seriously. Especially when this car would be sealed for a decent amount of time. Having everyone burn up in an enclosed space… Even the thought of it made R.N.A.'s circuits buzz in warning.

Narrator But as soon as you put your letter out to be sent, nothing can open your letter

Narrator And if you open your letter, you simply… cannot stamp an envelope here?

Hm. How odd. The car really did not like people trying to do both. What was even the big deal, anyway?

“What if someone else opens my letter? Am I… locked out of sending one… because of the actions of… another?” That didn’t seem very fair, if the choice could very easily be taken away from another by the actions of a third party.

“Or what if I attempted to… open my letter and stamp… a letter simultaneously?”

It may be difficult to do, but it was not necessarily impossible to do so. Would both actions fail because they happened in the same instant? But according to the car’s logic (at least as R.N.A. understood at the time), you should be able to do both if you do them at the exact same time, since you are only locked out of one option when the other is already complete.

“What if I… stamped a letter and then… took my letter with… me when I exited?”

Surely the car couldn’t keep the letter closed if the car did not have the letter within itself. Well, then again… This place clearly ran on magic. Perhaps the envelope would become magically sealed forever.

Narrator

R.N.A.

R.N.A. R.N.A. places both of their arms on the table, leaning in to get closer to Mahavir.

Mahavir leaned back in turn. Oh no, was this when they started threatening him? They were so big, too…

Or… they could just be saying more. Which was very much preferable, even if it didn’t make all that much sense.

“Um… It isn’t fire fire, though, it’s only…” He fiddled with a few letters. “I-I could shorten it? But it would only be less ruly—“ was that a word?—“should it become too short to tie back, so I’m unsure that would be the solution you hope it to be.”

R.N.A. “How long is a… little while… exactly?

“I don’t have much in the way of schedule tracking, but… a few years? We don’t get a lot of traffic here, though, especially all at once, so I’m afraid it doesn’t add up to that much experience… I can only tell you for certain what I’ve already seen.”

He listened to all of the following questions, though it was starting to feel like a lot. Did he need to take notes?

“Um, usually people aren’t so desperate to do both, or that inclined to think ahead… And usually there’s no risk of someone else here to try opening your letter first, so I don’t know. I apologize.” He paused to cough.

“In the end, all I can recommend is following the rules of the car simply. Even if I’m able to send off a stamped envelope, I can’t guarantee it will reach its destination if anything against the spirit of the car has occurred. The same goes for being able to open letters if they’ve been removed, er, unirthodoxically.”

R.N.A.

Narrator

Narrator “Um… It isn’t fire fire, though, it’s only…"

“It is only… what? It appears to be regular fire… to me.” You will explain your cool fire hair to me, mailboy.

Granted, the place where it was seemed to be was highly unusual. Even R.N.A. could concede to that. They could also concede to the fact that not being able to tie it back might be… worse. They hadn’t really considered it that way. Still. They felt they could not stop digging for info until they had fully gotten confirmation that this ponytail was safe to keep around.

This was for everyone’s sake, after all.

Narrator “I don’t have much in the way of schedule tracking, but… a few years? We don’t get a lot of traffic here, though, especially all at once, so I’m afraid it doesn’t add up to that much experience… I can only tell you for certain what I’ve already seen.”

Huh. Interesting. So there was a way to track the passing of time on this train? Or perhaps this was simply Mahavir estimating. It certainly was a little unfortunate that the mailman had so little experience, though. Though considering how big this train was, it made a little sense. How many people would reach this car?

Wait. Wait wait wait.

“You mentioned… you have received some traffic? Have there been… other humans before this group? Or did you mean literal vehicles?” That was a possibility. This train seemed to have strange rules.

Narrator “In the end, all I can recommend is following the rules of the car simply."

Well, of course. Following the rules was the best way to get anything done. Mahavir’s logic made sense. The train probably had something in place to prevent skirting of the rules through unorthodox means. Though R.N.A. had been curious about potential edge cases in regards to how this car’s internal logic worked… now was not the time to pursue that line of thought.

“Alright. In that case, I shall write a letter… to one of my fellow passengers. That would be… acceptable, yes?” It seemed liked the quickest way to fulfill what the train car wanted from everyone. Besides, Mahavir might be able to hand-deliver this letter. It might be a nice new experience for him.

Narrator

R.N.A.

R.N.A. “It is only… what? It appears to be regular fire… to me.”

“Only… my hair…?” He’d already said that, hadn’t he? “It does look like fire, though, yes…” He clearly wasn’t sure what else he was supposed to say about that.

R.N.A. “You mentioned… you have received some traffic? Have there been… other humans before this group? Or did you mean literal vehicles?”

Mahavir nodded, though he had to stop and blink at “literal vehicles.”

“Er, foot traffic, yes. As I’ve said, I haven’t really seen a group of this size before—usually it’s one Passenger and maybe a few Denizens, or sometimes two Passengers—but you are not the first, no. That would have been a, ah, very long wait for me?” Another joke(?).

R.N.A. “Alright. In that case, I shall write a letter… to one of my fellow passengers. That would be… acceptable, yes?”

“I… suppose?”

“That seems like a bit of a wasted opportunity to me, but perhaps that’s not my place to say…? Um, if you’d really like to write to another Passenger here, you may, but you could always use my materials to write them a simple letter without a stamp if you’d simply like to write to them. Letters can be delivered outside of the train, er, eventually, so you don’t need to limit yourself to humans or Denizens you’ve met here. Or, if that’s not the issue, there’s whatever letter may be addressed to you here…”

“Oh! If you think it must be too much of a hassle to find, I’d be happy to locate it for you! ‘R.N.A.’… Is that the most likely way someone would address you? Or your full name, or some nickname, perhaps?”

R.N.A.

Narrator

Narrator As I’ve said, I haven’t really seen a group of this size before—usually it’s one Passenger and maybe a few Denizens, or sometimes two Passengers—but you are not the first, no.

“What is… a Denizen?” R.N.A. asked. This was a new term. Did it have some sort of special meaning? R.N.A. needed to learn as much about the train as possible if they were to guide the people here. Mahavir seemed to have some knowledge that R.N.A. lacked.

Narrator “That seems like a bit of a wasted opportunity to me, but perhaps that’s not my place to say…?

“It is not… a waste to write to one of the humans here. They are all… important to me. But I suppose… you are right. I can write plenty of… letters without stamps. I should not limit myself to just one passenger.” With that, R.N.A. grabbed a whole chunk of supplies, beginning to write. Uh oh.

Narrator “Oh! If you think it must be too much of a hassle to find, I’d be happy to locate it for you! ‘R.N.A.’… Is that the most likely way someone would address you? Or your full name, or some nickname, perhaps?”

“My full name is Robotic Nurturing Assistant. R.N.A. is an… acronym. However… Who would write… a letter to a robot? It would be-” R.N.A. paused.

There, sitting on the desk, was a letter, clearly labelled “R.N.A.”.

“…I stand… corrected.” They pointed to the letter. “How… unusual. I am sure it is… unimportant.”

Narrator

R.N.A.

R.N.A. “What is… a Denizen?”

Ah—so this was a Passenger. But Mahavir couldn’t see any numbers… Maybe they were the friend of a Passenger? Did those ever come along without being Passengers themselves? That didn’t seem right, but perhaps there were exceptions for robots…

“Denizens are those of us who live on the Train permanently. It’s our purpose to aid Passengers along their journey here—” cough—“though what precisely that looks like seems to vary quite a bit. I haven’t met many others, since we don’t typically travel between cars that much.”

R.N.A. I can write plenty of… letters without stamps. I should not limit myself to just one passenger.” With that, R.N.A. grabbed a whole chunk of supplies, beginning to write. Uh oh.

Well, that was something Mahavir hadn’t had to worry about before. A side effect of having so many Passengers at once? Either way, more supplies would come. There was no cause for concern, no matter how eager R.N.A. got.

“Do let me know if any of the supplies seem to run low. I can look around for more.”

R.N.A. Who would write… a letter to a robot?

“Er, is it really such an odd idea? I’ve had at least one person write to a, um… ‘Miku’? It sounded like she was a robot.”

R.N.A. “…I stand… corrected.” They pointed to the letter. “How… unusual. I am sure it is… unimportant.”

“Oh!” That had to be the quickest search for a letter he’d ever—! Or perhaps not. It typically didn’t take that long when Passengers were present. R.N.A. didn’t seem terribly invested, though, so he only slid it towards them rather than trying to hand it off.

“We don’t tend to see any junk mail here, if that’s your concern. Of course, there’s no way to be sure what it holds without opening it, but that would prevent you from sending any letters outside of this car… Not a decision to be taken lightly, I suppose.”