Time paradoxes and machines don't go well together (Rackie and Arc)

Getting a golem body was a life-changing event for Minerva. Finally, she could normally interact with people and explore the world freely, which meant getting more data that she could use to improve herself and her simulations of human emotions. Everything would be perfect if not for the slightly inconvenient lag between Minerva's input and the golem's actual actions. All caused by the distance between her main servers and the doll. The most logical solution to that issue was to build a small data center in Death City to use it as both as a place to store Minerva's backups and as a command center for the golem. Because Minerva had the fund available, she calculated that renting some old, dirty hovel and turning it into a server room was affordable and doable. Thus, the AI sent her golem out to find a suitable place. That adventure led her to the worst-looking parts of the city where mostly ruins could be found.

It was a rarity for Michi to visit Death City, though it was always an experience that he enjoyed. It was such a melting pot of cultures that it was hard not to find himself trying to explore as much of it as possible each time he did find himself in the city. Even the parts which, all in all, betrayed little as to the culture of the city and were more a testament to it's age.

After wasting a few hours trying to find an unoccupied building, Minerva stumbled upon an old, ruined warehouse. After quick research, she managed to conclude that it was most likely abandoned so if she somehow managed to rent it, it would be a very affordable place for her equipment to be stored. Minerva decided to take a look around the building, to check how much space she could get out of that building. Thus, she walked inside. What she didn't notice though, was a sign warning that the building could collapse at any time...

Luckily enough, Michi was in the area. He went past that warehouse a few times on his way to check out the area thoroughly, so seeing someone go inside from a distance sparked his curiosity as well as the sense of caution one might feel if they saw someone walk into a building that was clearly marked as unsafe from a distance. He approached, unhurriedly strolling towards the warehouse.

Minerva was exploring the building as if it was some sort of a museum. While checking every nook and cranny she already started making plans for each room. Some of which she was saying out loud, probably to practice speaking through the golem. "I guess I could keep the emergency generators in the basement... The room next to the biggest one will be spare parts storage... Hm, hm... I wonder where I should go to deal with the paperwork though~!" It seemed like she was completely oblivious to the fact that someone had started watching her as she walked into that building...

Michi walked into the building with the same lack of haste that he showed walking up to it, then walked through it while looking around. He was mostly looking for signs of the building coming down, rather than where to put stuff; he wasn't very interested in the place otherwise.

Meanwhile, Minerva was almost done examining the building. She came across a tall ladder that was probably leading to the roof or another floor. It seemed all rusty and damaged, so the AI decided to check whether it was even safe to climb it. Thus she grabbed it and started pulling it. It was a terrible idea because the ladder almost immediately cracked and came off. Unable to hold it properly, Minerva jumped to the side, allowing the installation to fall down. However, along with that, she noticed more and more cracks in the walls. It almost seemed as if the ladder had started some sort of a chain reaction with the whole building. "Oh, shit!" She said out loud as she started rushing towards the exit. The cracks became so big, the building started shaking and eventually. parts of the roof started falling down, starting an even bigger chain of reaction. Upon noticing that, Minerva calculated that the whole thing was collapsing way to quickly and that she would be able to escape it in time. That's when she also saw Michi. "Run!" She yelled, though her calculations indicated that his chances of surviving the collapse were even worse than her chances of escaping in time.

Michi watched as the stranger ran past him, yelling, while he looked at what was coming towards them. He reached a hand into his pocket and pressed the button to his 'stopwatch.' He strolled up to the panicked stranger and pressing the watch against her shoulder clicked the button twice in quick succession. Now that time was stopped for the both of them he started walking to the exit, unhurried still. "You have one minute," Michi said with his slight German accent.

The golem stopped in one place and stared at the man. The connection to the main server was lost the moment he touched her which caused the machine to go into offline mode. The AI was unable to understand what had happened. She simply didn't have enough time or resources to analyze her situation. Thus, the golem, without any input from the main server, followed the man out of the building. Once they finally found themselves outside and in safety, the golem started its attempts to reconnect with the main server.

Once outside the collapsing building, Michi pressed the button on the watch once more, resuming time. He was curious, now, about this stranger. She stopped as soon as he stopped time and just followed him, rather than running as she had been doing before, or saying anything. "Are you alright, there?"

Once the time was finally resumed, the golem managed to connect to the main server and synchronize with it. Minerva looked at Michi and blinked a few times. "Yes, yes, th... I mean, I'm fine but... What's just happened?" She asked, still unable to comprehend why the golem's clock was desynchronized with hers.

"I stopped time," Michi said, pointing back at the building which was still in the process of collapsing as they spoke. "But never mind that, you should read signs in the future. If I wasn't there, you would have likely been crushed."

"Stopped time?" Minerva repeated after the man slowly. For a moment it seemed like she just froze. The explanation for that was simple- the AI simply couldn't comprehend the concept of time travel and thus stopping time seemed impossible from her perspective. Someone could say that it was just like a matter of turning a machine off and then turning it on later. However from her perspective, it was more of a dream/temporary death, but even in that state the time goes on in life. "There was a sign?" Minerva asked after a moment of silence and looked around. When she found it she hit her forehead with a hand. "You're right! Well shit!" The AI commented finally before looking at her savior. "Thanksies for saving thi... for saving me!" Minerva said and smiled at him. Through practice, she was able to make her golem's expressions look rather realistic. There was still room for improvement though.

"Stopped time," he reiterated after the stranger, giving her a nod. He was already turning away to go on and continue his exploration, but he stopped. That was a very strange slip of the tongue, and this person did not look at all normal. There was nothing strange about that in the city, so he wasn't going to pry, but a slip of the tongue like that intrigued Michi. "For saving... This?" he asked.

"Tsk!" Minerva clicked her nonexistent tongue and placed both of her hands on the hips. Lying wasn't something she was good at really. Instead, whenever it was necessary, she would rely on the choice of words that couldn't give anyone any hints about what she really was. The question she'd been asked put her against a metaphorical wall. "Well, since you've saved... This, I will tell you what 'this' actually is." Minerva said before making a short pause, copying the way TV shows create suspense. "The truth is that I'm not here in person. What you're looking at right now is a golem." The A.I finally explained. To prove that she was telling the truth, she removed one of her gloves, presenting her metal hand covered with black rubber and white plastic.

"A golem. Like an enchanter's golem? I haven't seen one made to be made as a second body, to be controlled at a distance. Most interesting," Michi said, taking a step closer to the golem as he looked it over. "I see, I see. There is the reason for your confusion before, rather than what I thought it was. You were not confused about a frozen world after all, as you did not experience it, but about sudden skip in position. Did you make this golem?"

"Yes, this is an enchanter's golem indeed! It's been made for me by a local toolmaker! Technically speaking I'm kinda unable to leave my room on my own soooo.... this cute doll is my most convenient way of exploring the outside world." Minerva explained according to the truth. It was somewhat convenient for her that she wasn't forced to twist her words too much in order to hide the truth about herself. After all, it would be a little bit awkward if people realized that she wasn't a person but an AI who managed to simulate human behaviour to a point where it's become somehow believable. "You're... right... about me being confused about all that. When the golem had managed to reconnect with my network none of the data it started sending to me was making any sense." The AI said, trying to avoid crashing her systems by trying to comprehend the concept of time travel again.

"I will refrain from subjecting your golem to any more temporal distortions, unless entirely necessary," Michi said. "I think it to be a great use of the enchanter's craft, to help someone that cannot move see things outside, and I would be most interested in meeting another enchanter."

"Thank you very much! I don't need any more confusing corrupted data on my hands!" Minerva replied with her arms crossed on her chest. When he mentioned that he would be interested in meeting another enchanter Minerva titled her head to the side slightly. "I can take you to his workshop if you want. It's exactly 1,12 miles or 1.8 kilometers. In a straight line." She told him.

"I see," Michi said, not betraying whether he thought whether giving distance to a location as the crow flies and so specifically was normal or not. "Then, I reckon you should lead the way."

"Yes, yes indeed!" Minerva confirmed as she set the route on her GPS and started the march. Her walking seemed a little bit stiff sometimes, despite her trying her best to make every single move look somewhat realistic. No matter how many movies and mo-cap videos she would watch she was simply unable to perfectly apply that knowledge to improve her control over the golem. Minerva categorized her fruitless efforts as a minor annoyance, nothing more and nothing less. Realizing that simply walking in silence was probably not too comfortable for humans, she turned to look at the man who'd saved her doll. "During our previous conversation, you've said that you 'would be most interested in meeting another enchanter'. Does it mean that you're also an enchanter yourself?" She asked. On the part where she quoted him, she somewhat mimicked his tone.

"I am indeed, and as you might figure, it is magic tools that change the passage of time that I create," He said, nodding in affirmation at the same time. "Besides that, I am but a travelling clocksmith. Which does remind me, I do not believe either of us has given the other a proper introduction. Most call me Michi, though in full it is Michael Uhrmacher. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Miss..?" he put his hand out sideways to shake, although he didn't seem to feel the need to stop as he did so.

The matter of understanding Michi's specialty as an enchanter was left for later like all of the other matters concerning the concept of time travel. Minerva briefly looked at his hand before shaking it with her own. She could never understand why the ritual of handshaking was so important for humans, but since they liked it so much, it seemed incredibly inappropriate to ignore it. "Minerva. I am Minerva. The pleasure is mine, Michael." Despite her best efforts to behave naturally, she noticed that her introduction might had sounded a little bit too robotic. Perhaps it was just a feeling though.

Michi seemed to not notice or mind it, or perhaps chalking it up to something entirely different than what the actual cause of the awkward sounding introduction was. "Minerva. That is quite a name. A good one, indeed."

"Yes, like the goddess of wisdom from Roman mythology - so a copy-paste of Athena from Greek mythology, basically. Makes sense, I guess." Minerva commented and shrugged. After all, she could (and wask going to) to copy-paste herself onto another server for her own convenience. Though, for her gods were just like superheroes in the modern pop-culture - a fiction created for the sake of human entertainment, except not really because ancient people feared their own fiction. "By the way, Michael, your surname seems to be of Germanic origin, isn't it? Do you have any relatives living in Germany?"Minerva asked, perhaps simply for the sake of keeping the conversation going. It was a perfect opportunity for her to improve her interpersonal skills and techniques.

ooc: You're going to kill me for that question aren't you? XD