dappered | (no subject)

[ Cortana doesn't sleep. Ever. Which is maybe why she had spent a good majority of her time watching John sleep instead, from her chip on the table next to him. She didn't need sleep, ever, got along just fine without it, and she had never been really sure if that was one of the quirks or the downsides of being inhuman.

At least she doesn't miss much.

Still, this isn't something that should have happened. Whatever it is, whatever it was, Cortana doesn't understand how she could be in one place one second, staring out the hangar of the Forward Unto Dawn, and then -- here, the next. There's no lapse of what she would call consciousness, no falter in her program, she's just there, and then she's not, and for once, Cortana doesn't understand at all.

The sun is stretched high above her, high above the chip from which she's currently standing on, fingers outstretched as if waiting for something. It takes her a moment to look down, to look around, and then finally, to figure out where it is she's at.

Her commands are a little shaky, her various programs slightly off-balance from whatever apparent instantenous journey she had just made, but it doesn't take her long to determine she's not far at all from Valhalla.

Which is. Great. Just what she needed. ]

Chief? . . . John?

[ And, of course, she's met with silence. ]

Scanning and analyzing area --

Retreating back into chip. [ And with that, the holograph disappears back into the data chip, hiding her under the grassy green field. ] Unidentifiable lifeforms. Total, 7, possibly more. Analyzing further. Human. Non-human. Non-human. Human. Human. Human. Human. Closest human lifeform, approximately three-fourths of a mile away.

Damnit.

[ But she had no choice, either way. ]

Releasing distress beacon. Chief, if you can hear me, standby.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah...

[ He doesn't want to say he's got a good idea what makes it worse. ]

Either way, if your head starts hurting again, just let me know. I don't know if I'll be able to help, but I'd like to try.

Actually, it kinda [ hurts all the time ] ... hurts right now.

-- Could you set me down on the floor?

[ LOOKS ASKANCE AT THE DOOR just in case Wash is choosing this moment to decide funny business is afoot, and when the agent fails to appear, Epsilon gingerly picks up Cortana's storage disk and does as asked. ]

Sit down -- ? I don't know if this'll help -- it's worth a shot, though.

[ She's asking him to sit down. Nothing terrifying, nothing risque, just taking a seat. But it's the way she says it...

Teeny tiny voice, ]

...'kay.

[ Sits on the edge of the chair. :c ]

I've never done this before, so there's no guarantee it'll work, but. I'm going to try and channel some of my energy to a specific point, and attempt to use it on you as a sort of light therapy.

Does that sound okay, Leonard?

[ Hides the squirm in his chair. It's hard to explain, but it's trending close to touching another AI which he's never been able to do, except Alpha and in these bodies that hardly counts... ]

Yeah, that-- sounds good.

I'll be gentle. It shouldn't hurt, but tell me if it does; I'll stop right away.

Anyway, Leonard. What are you three doing here?

[ >.9 Does he feel that? He's not sure. But he might be leaning back just fractions of an inch, that much closer to actual contact. ]

Hell if I know. We got a base up top but they don't want Caboose bugging them, I guess. We're supposed to be moving out soon to take care of some shit anyway, so not like it matters, right?

Ah, I see. You sound like very busy people. I must have dropped in at the wrong time.

[ ...It tingles. :c ]

So what'd you actually do to stop being our hostage?

Are you familiar with Sierra-117?

[ Blink and you'll miss it, so it's a good thing Cortana doesn't. There's an almost imperceptible shift in Epsilon's posture, and when he speaks it's a bit more... precise. ]

SPARTAN-II Commando Master Chief Petty Officer John-117.

...

[ He glances up, expression open; curious. ]

He's not coming to kill us, is he?

No. He can help.

Uhh... Do we really need his help?

I mean, no offense, I'm sure he's great and all, but I think we got this.

This doesn't just involve you anymore, though. It involves the whole of UNSC, and Chief will want to know about it. Immediately.

[ He squints his left eye, head tilting slightly. The area does seem to numb out, kinda. It'd feel good if it weren't so weird. ]

...What does? You mean--

--about Alpha?

Is that what you call him? Then yes. That's part of it.

He's done a lot for UNSC -- he practically represents them, really, and the last thing he would ever want is for them to being pulling any sort of underhanded business, especially where AIs are concerned. It needs to be looked into further and put down for good if it isn't already.

...

[ He ducks his head, moving away from her hand, scrutinizing the floor. ]

...That's where you're wrong, Cortana. It's where Wash was wrong too. If we could depend on anyone else I could just turn myself over to the authorities like Wash wanted. He doesn't get that that's not gonna solve anything. Master Chief's not gonna solve this either.

How do you know?

--I heard them when I was in storage. Before implantation, and again after it. I mean. I've got shit missing, I know that, but... If that guy just wants to weed out a few people and leave the rest? That's not solving the problem. We'll be wasting our time.

Then we'll take the longer route.

Yeah, okay, but...

[ No. He's not getting into it with her. He hasn't yielded that much to Caboose or anyone else, and he won't.

He just can't shake the feeling that the only way to right this is to wipe the fucking board.

The tension eases a little from his face when Cortana applies her hand again. He'd barely noticed how bad the pain was getting, the more he spoke. If he has a clever segue, he abandons it in favor of contented silence for the moment. ]

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