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

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. ]

[ You know. Once you got over the initial mystique of her, Cortana could be a very calming presence. Not unlike Delta, in a way... or some of the other more affable fragments.

There are a lot of contradictory parts to this Church construct that Epsilon can't quite reconcile, and the worst just seem to come to the fore now looking at her. A lot of impulses he must've decided were entirely rational from available information at the time, but the implementation of which kind of elude him. The worst part being that while he acts like Alpha he has to think like him, and the logical gaps do nothing but make his eyebrows knit, his mind struggling to plaster up the holes without looking at them.

He knows he has to get to Tex, because he belongs with her and she's part of him in ways Alpha doesn't even deserve to understand or appreciate. The other girl around, Donut, seems nice enough according to Caboose, but Tex is his.

But Cortana's still the first feminine body Epsilon has actually seen with his own eyes, and she's still no more clothed than she was earlier. And his lowered gaze ends up inadvertently at the level of her... ]

You know, that... That actually makes a big difference. I can't even feel it now.

[ Stare stare stare. ]

Edited 2009-11-17 08:34 (UTC)

It's helping, then? Good. Hopefully it lasts for a decent amount of time.

[ He unglues his vision at long last and looks up into Cortana's face, blinking up at her with that earnestly open stare of the toddler he truly was, despite all programming and the shape of this body.

It wasn't the same urge for connection he felt around his fellow fragments, but there was still something-- maybe curiosity, maybe neediness, sensing in the Smart AI the kind of balance and completeness that he lacked (would always lack) in himself.

He felt the twitch in his arm to reach up, and held back before he touched her wrist. Even if he could, what good could he expect it to do?

(Does this count as cheating on Tex? He really has to find that out soon.) ]

Thanks. Um...