Harpuia looked back to X, a flicker of genuine surprise in his eyes. "I'd... never thought of it like that," he admitted. Fefnir, Phantom and Leviathan... they'd been more than simply co-workers. Comrades. Friends. People infinitely dear to him. There was no reason to pretend that he never felt any sort of bond with them -- some part of his soul was still trembling at the memory of Fefnir and Leviathan laying in dire need of repair and nearly all of Neo Arcadia simply turning a blind eye. It wasn't as though sibling reploids were entirely unheard of, either; his own army had included Herculious and Kuwagust Anchus, a pair of brother Mutos reploids.
All the same... he'd always framed his own identity in the context of his duty -- he never even knew the names of the humans who had built him, so what reason was there to put much thought toward the concept of family? He may not have been built to be a war machine, but he wasn't exactly an average civillian, either; he'd been born in the context of filling a purpose, and that purpose had inevitably been the groundwork for how he viewed the world.
"I suppose that, if anything, you would be our father," Harpuia began, though the words felt uncertain and strange on his tongue. Brother, father... it sat oddly with him, to assign such personal and familiar terms to X. It felt presumptuous, like a breach of propriety, to claim such an intimate connection to such a significant reploid. X, technically speaking, was famously known as the father of all reploids; perhaps Harpuia's creators had stuck closer to the template than most, but to use his birth to claim he was inherently more special than other reploids somehow seemed disingenuous to him. The DNA that had been used to make him wasn't a shortcut to prestige. It was meant, he was convinced, to hold him to a higher standard -- to push him to be worthy of what he'd been granted, prove that X's DNA hadn't been wasted on him.
"...I don't believe I can see it like that, though," he confessed. "You may see me in any light that you wish, Master X, but you are first and foremost the one that I serve. I don't mean to reject you in any way," Harpuia added quickly, lest X get the wrong idea. "I simply never felt a need for a family. There never was an empty place in my heart for words like those to fill. Rest assured, though, Master X: the term you choose to describe my feelings may change how they look on the surface, but it doesn't alter the content. Whatever you wish to be in my eyes -- brother, father, or master -- you are, above all, someone I respect and admire."
no subject
All the same... he'd always framed his own identity in the context of his duty -- he never even knew the names of the humans who had built him, so what reason was there to put much thought toward the concept of family? He may not have been built to be a war machine, but he wasn't exactly an average civillian, either; he'd been born in the context of filling a purpose, and that purpose had inevitably been the groundwork for how he viewed the world.
"I suppose that, if anything, you would be our father," Harpuia began, though the words felt uncertain and strange on his tongue. Brother, father... it sat oddly with him, to assign such personal and familiar terms to X. It felt presumptuous, like a breach of propriety, to claim such an intimate connection to such a significant reploid. X, technically speaking, was famously known as the father of all reploids; perhaps Harpuia's creators had stuck closer to the template than most, but to use his birth to claim he was inherently more special than other reploids somehow seemed disingenuous to him. The DNA that had been used to make him wasn't a shortcut to prestige. It was meant, he was convinced, to hold him to a higher standard -- to push him to be worthy of what he'd been granted, prove that X's DNA hadn't been wasted on him.
"...I don't believe I can see it like that, though," he confessed. "You may see me in any light that you wish, Master X, but you are first and foremost the one that I serve. I don't mean to reject you in any way," Harpuia added quickly, lest X get the wrong idea. "I simply never felt a need for a family. There never was an empty place in my heart for words like those to fill. Rest assured, though, Master X: the term you choose to describe my feelings may change how they look on the surface, but it doesn't alter the content. Whatever you wish to be in my eyes -- brother, father, or master -- you are, above all, someone I respect and admire."