#v2 misses earth a lot and mike really enjoys being in nature now so!

[muzzleroars]

I'm sorry if this has been already asked but what's V2's relationship/dynamic with V1?

Also, whats V2's reaction to V1's ascension/being risen?

eventually it's 100% an evil sibling dynamic, but it takes quite some time for v2 and v1 to understand each other. v2's resistance is obvious, it's been left bitter by their prior encounters and, at a fundamental level, it believes v1 is far more like the other machines than it is...and it's right. v2 was trained extensively on human learning/behavioral models, it thinks in a very different way despite v1 also being highly sophisticated and sharing the same hardware for its mind. v2 saw v1 as a pure war machine, one so perfect for its purpose that it couldn't find a place in the new peace (ask it, it knows). essentially, it doesn't really believe v1 is capable of bonding, is capable of connection, and it believes, for some time, gabriel has projected his own feelings on it. however, v2 has very few options for social relationships in hell, something it needs given its development, and gabriel is about the only choice it has. it pointedly avoids v1 when visiting, not really trying to change gabriel's mind but also not listening when he insists how v1's grown by leaps and bounds. it isn't until v1 makes the effort, that v1 tries interacting with it in non-violent ways, that it begins to reconsider. it's easy to push it away at first, but v1 keeps coming back, even going so far as to not engage it when v2 instigates in exasperation...and it doesn't know WHAT to think. when it signs out to it that gabriel said it should try, that gabriel told it v2 is the only family it has left (and he's very insistent. it would make him happy, it tells v2). when it sees something deeper in v1, that it isn't just a perfect, mindless murderer, it begins to let its guard down little by little around it.

when they grow more comfortable with each other, v2 STILL thinks v1 is more than a little unhinged from its corrupted software and v1 thinks v2 is more than a little strange, trying to act like people, but it becomes much more pestering/teasing each other. this. looks a little different in what's essentially two tiny war machines, but gabriel quickly learns a vast majority of what they do is now "play" fighting, despite the damage it causes to the surrounding area. however, i do think they learn A LOT from each other in very good ways - v1 sees v2 modeling behaviors in a way it understands much better and it helps it be gentle with gabriel, while v1 teaches v2 that it's okay to let go of that, that it is a machine and can act like one when it wants to. they would never admit they're copying each other, but gabriel finds it incredibly endearing that they make all these little connections because no one else left in the world could understand each other the way they do in many ways. i even...like the idea that v1 gives the knuckleblaster back, so long as v2 helps it make a new one (v2 is much more gifted in crafting than v1...and it's more v1 helping v2 make it.....with the help very unhelpful at times.....) in the end, they're still committed to terrorizing each other, but they also grow close in their own way and would absolutely defend the other if needed. (gabriel is overjoyed and v1 is happy he's happy)

as far as risen v1 goes, i think v2 is likely around in the initial process given how long it takes - gabriel takes his light back, but v1 lays dormant in heaven for quite some time. v2, in and out of heaven itself often for visiting mike, probably does what it can to comfort gabriel during this time. it's not particularly good at that kind of thing, but it was dead too, after all, and he saved it then....why couldn't he do it now with v1? it's genuinely unsure if it will work and....something in it is sad to see v1 so deteriorated, so silent and still. it takes that to mike though, knowing gabriel doesn't need the additional grief, relating how the two never came to fully understand one another, but not thinking it matters either way. it had grown to appreciate v1's presence and there truly isn't anything that could remotely replace it. but when v1 wakes, when all of its circuitry lights up in bright blue, v2 is relieved with gabriel. for a minute. until it realizes the kind of terror it's going to be now that it can...fly. it kind of maybe holds out hope for a second that something in it will be tempered by gabriel's light but that only lasts until it sees it crawling all over gabe like an aphid before immediately leaping off the tallest building it can find. so while everyone is amazed at v1's successful rise, v2 thinks it's going to move to heaven permanently because it is NOT living near THAT.

#like it's happy v1 made it and everything #but it doesn't want to be NEAR it now #although maybe that's when it and mike go to live on the surface for awhile #i like to think they do at some point #v2 misses earth a lot and mike really enjoys being in nature now so! #cake answers #v2 #v1 #rise and fall au