Blues, Vale (OC)
Snow was an uncomfortable part of nature. Born in the Icicle Inn area, he had automatically assumed the whole world, as small as he saw it, was blanketed in white and there was nothing beyond the mountains and grey-pitched horizon. Once he was taken away from there, the world grew, and so did his appreciation for solid ground. Snow of the Nort-continent bore heavy, unmelting memories, especially; letting it carry him seemed almost too much. But in the end, this was where a number of machina hid themselves, away from humanity and the world at large. Snow did that. Snow took away the parameters of the planet and shrunk them to tiny microcosms inside the macrocosm that was reality.
Overall, it made it a pain in the ass to find them. He had already crossed the paths of Chill and Yeti, and he would likely cross the paths of the rest of them before finding the Winter Model he needed to speak to. Frostlove's snowes stopped everything under her command, so if he didn't run into them, it was a lucky day, and if he were to find Fallon or Wolfang, he'd likely find the other along with him, tearing up the mountains.
Vale found him, though, as the great cat stalked the great expanse of white, hidden in the blowing snow from predators and prey. Killed monsters to keep up appearances, killed monsters who hunted humans. He had been a rescue unit in his previous life and, unlike many of his brothers and sisters, never rewrote his primary directive. Which is what Blues had to speak to him about. His jaws were full of bandersnatch, and he motioned with his tail for Blues to follow.
"Did you widen your parameters?" Blues asked, watching Vale drop the carcass off in front of a small den and walked away only when it dragged inside by its unknown occupants.
"Cubs lost their mother. Young cannot be left alone."
"They grow up, and then they will kill."
"That is not my concern. What do you wish of me?"
"You were on the western continent, twenty three years ago. In the Nibel Mountains."
"Yes, sir? I spent two uncomfortable years in those mountains. The summer months were not kind. I have told you this before."
"Was there a human woman in your company at any point? A pregnant woman?" Vale didn't answer, though his tail gave away that his mind was active. "Veil Leocloud!" Blues barked. "Did you rescue a pregnant woman in the months of July and August?"
Vale grunted. "So many people kept killing themselves in those mountains by accident, and many more were hurt. I helped many people."
"Don't dance on broken glass. I need a straight answer. Did you, or did you not help a pregnant woman named Bethany Strife deliver her baby and return her to town, by speaking to her?"
The tip of Vale's tail twitched anxiously. "Is the child grown?"
"Did you speak to her?"
"Of course. She would have injured herself and the young if I hadn't. She broke her leg and she was so scared. You must know the child. Is it grown?"
If robots could get headaches, Blues was sure he would have one. What was the point of being told what humans they have contacted if they won't admit to such small encounters? "Yes, the child is grown," he said, and threw his hands up in the air. "You saved the child who would save the world."
Vale looked delighted. "Really? That's quite nice. Did it turn out good, the child?"
"He turned out just fine. Moody, dour, and isn't happy enough."
"Sir, are you describing yourself?"
Blues eyed him, critically. "Do you know how I'm bothering to ask you about all this?"
"Not at all. Though we do criticize you for having knowledge you often should not, without you knowing so." Pause. "Oh dear."
"Never mind that. The boy's name is Cloud Leo Strife. She named him after you. I thought it was simply because he was born in August that she would call him Leo...but he told my princess his name was almost Leo Vale Strife. Dammit Vale, you should have told me!"
"It was a human! I was built to save them I have rescued so many! Was she so different?"
"How many did you speak to? How many did you 'introduce' yourself to?"
"...Just her, sir."
"What part of human acceptance do most of you not understand? Regardless of how any of you see humanity, they need to know we exist, properly. That starts small. That means I need to know who knows you are not some witless beast. Bethany Strife was ostracized by her neighbors for not only having a child with no father, but she swears a monster saved her. Who would believe that? That a monster can talk? ...She died, in case you didn't know. Seven years ago, when her town burned."
Vale bowed his head and hunched his shoulders. Amends could not be made so easily. "...May I go see the child? Please?"
"...Yeah. Who am I to stop you?"