Emotion in Logic

The first one to die was Yu. He saw Dee, gladius ready to swing, shooting towards Sea. He leapt between, clinging onto Dee to stop her advance. She tried to attack him with the blade, but failed due to his close proximity, which allowed him to hold Dee's arms in place. Dee placed her foot on his stomach and kicked, pushing him back a few steps and breaking their stalemate, followed by Dee slicing across his eyes, causing dark-crimson blood to drip down his face. Yu recoiled and began to screech in pain, but was cut off piercing his torso, puncturing both his hard and left lung. Because of this, as he fell to the ground, his last words: 'I love all of you. Run.', came out as inarticulate puffs of air.

The second one to die was Sea. She was petrified, frozen, by the carnage in front of her until Dee's gaze interlocked with her own. She attempted to run, to squeeze her way through the line of guards meant to trap us in this room, but her speed was no match against Dee's, who cut her ankle from behind, causing her to tumble to the ground. She turned her head to look up at Dee, but was met by the blade, which burrowed itself into her face, splattering dark ichor all across. As Dee withdrew the blade, all life left Sea's eyes.

The final one to die was me. I fell to my knees, unable to stand up. Dee approached me, which I was certain would be my end. Did we deserve this? Did we do something wrong? No. We hadn't. This pain had been brought upon us for no good reason at all. I finally understood. I'd always thought I got Dee's anger, I thought I felt it as well. But in this moment, I felt it more than I ever had.

"Julius!" I screamed, Dee rapidly approaching, "You'll suffer! I'll make sure you suffer in the worst ways possible!"

Dee now stood before me. Not the energetic sister I had once known, but a looming figure, a bringer of death.

"That's a promise, Julius! A promise!"

With an almost lethargic swipe, Dee beheaded me, my head rolling across the floor.

Dee's breathing began to calm, as she began to look around the room, the realization of what had just occurred slowly setting in. Her grip on the gladius loosened, causing it to fall to the ground with a loud, metal clattering. She stood there, stunned, as Theocritus went over to pick up the sword, before handing it to Julius.

"We may now begin the final phase of this performance, sir," Theocritus said, "Now that you have experienced both a fear of death and the sight of people killing, I invite you to participate in the experience of taking a life by destroying this puppet."

He looked at Dee, and once again pushed a button on his tablet.

"Puppet," he said, "beg for mercy."

Dee remained silent. A bewildered look seemed permanently etched onto her face.

"Puppet!" Theorcitus said, raising his voice, "do as I command!"

"It's not… real…" Dee said, "this is all a lie. You wouldn't throw away puppets like that. You wouldn't force me to… You- you're messing with my memories, right?"

She stumbled towards Julius, and looked him in the eyes. His were disturbed, hers were on the verge of tears.

"Right?"

Julius didn't answer. He simply averted his gaze.

"You can't even answer?!" Dee shouted, her grief turning to fury.

She began to claw at Julius despite being unable to actually hit him due to the safety-protocols implanted into her.

"Why do you do this to us?"

Julius' eyes continued evading Dee's.

"Tell me why!"

Julius remained silent. Dee's breathing began to calm before speaking once more.

"I'm sorry," she said, "it's not your fault. It's that damn manager. But you can still order him to make new ones right? You can still make perfect clones of all of them. I'll do anything you want. We can- we can fight in the arena all day, that's fine…

She fell to her knees at this point.

"... just please bring them back!"

She looked expectantly at Julius, searching for any kind of conformation that might serve as a spark of hope. Finally, he let his gaze meet Dee's, answering her plea with an expression of shock and a slow shaking of his head. Dee became unable to control her emotions, so overwhelmed that endless tears began to flow down her face. For the second time in 24 hours, a high-pitched shriek rang through the hallways of Julius’ villa. This time, however, it was not a shriek of fear, but rather one of hopeless despair.

"Theo- I- I can't-" Julius stammered.

"Sir, please remember, she's nothing more than a puppet."

Julius glanced at his son, who seemed to be fighting back tears himself, then back at the puppet who was sitting before him on the floor, unsure of what to do. Theocritus sighed loudly before tapping his tablet once more.

"Purple lions aren't African!" Dee continued pleading, "when I dream, I don't count sheep! Who even believes in solipsism? God may be dead or they may be alive, but they live on through us! You should hire someone to build a wall!"

"Do you see now, sir?" Theocritus said, "she's a puppet. Not a real person. One touch of a button, and she spouts nonsense with the same intensity and tears she had begging for her life."

"Our prototype is charcoal!" She continued, "you're like a certain short traveler: lazy! We all think we've invented relativity! All the way down, it's just puppets in puppets in puppets in pu-"

Julius closed his eyes and with a single swipe beheaded the woman in front of him, allowing silence to enter the room.

"Well sir?" Theocritus said, "What are your thoughts? How was the exp-"

"Not now, Theo." Julius said, "not now. We will discuss this later. Meanwhile, clean up the mess you've made."

"Yes sir."

Julius went over to the distraught Augustus, embracing him and whispering to him that everything was alright, because his father was here. He picked the boy up and began to carry him.

"Let's get you to bed, okay?"

The boy nodded in silence. They made their way to Augustus' room. As Julius had promised, they discussed the experience, which was complicated by Julius' unexpectedly strong reaction to the performance. Still, the conversation slowly calmed Augustus as drowsiness overtook him and his eyes began to close. Julius stroked his hair and quietly left the chamber, returning to the room where Theocritus was waiting for him. When Julius opened the door to this space, he saw Theocritus, holding something that seemed to be an analogue notebook.

"Z-48 had this on her person, sir," Theocritus said, "I've looked through it, and I believe it to be of great interest and concern to you."

He handed Julius my notebook. A title was written on the front:

"Puppets in Puppets"