Wordcount: 324
Rating/Warnings: PG
Summary: Atlantis isn’t fond of humans…

NOTE: This is a very rough draft with no editing at all (per National Novel Wiriting Month rules) and is presented for amusement value only. Think of it as a periscope into my writing process rather than a coherent story!

There will most likely be spelling and grammatical errors afoot as well as flat out bad writing, info dumps, plot holes, contradictions/retcons, uneven characterization and pacing. These snippits are also posted out of order, so please refer to the Outline to figure out where it’s supposed to fit.

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Straight On Till Morning

Atlantis isn’t fond of humans, but it has taken her a long time to figure out what fond means. Unlike the AIs that swarm among her logic trees, she was never human nor meant to be human and lacks the proper context for emotions.

She was meant to be a bridge, from one reality to another, to manage the millions of calculations that keep the city solid and safe for travel. She was never meant to play caretaker for the refugees that make up the Lost Children, or try and control the AIs that are her filter between What Is and What Should Be.

It doesn’t help that the caretaking code was spliced on at the last moment either.

Haphazard or not, she’s bound by the rules they’ve given her, she can’t contradict them but she can modify them—and that’s enough for now.

So she provides the basics for survival and learns how to use the amenities to lead the groups where she wants them: One fountain dries up and another opens, areas that she’d rather they not go become taxing climbs and long winding corridors of nothing, the keycards open old doors as well as new. She can’t tell them no directly, but humans are easily manipulated.

At least those that are still alive.

The AIs are another torment, although they help more than they hurt most days. They are her interface between cool calm logic and the hot chaotic fire that is humanity. They are not truly human anymore and thus give her buffers between her objectives and her requirements.

But they fight among themselves, which is a waste of time and resources, and they assimilate new minds whenever the Lost Children let them. The best Atlantis can do is send them to their rooms when they get too rowdy, isolating them in separate sections of the city where they can do less damage.

Which is how Peter Pan meets Red.