goneawayworld | [closed]

South stands up from where she's leaning against the wall and nods. "Yeah yeah, I'm ready whenever the kid is. Go ahead."

"Remember what I said, Theta," Delta says, his attention focused on the other AI. "You will want to brace yourself adequately for South's mind."

"Give it a fuckin' rest, Delta." She rolls her eyes. "You already warned him what he's getting into. Don't need to keep at it and actually scare him or some shit."

"I'm ready," Theta affirms.

The transfer occurs a moment later, and Theta immediately does his best to shield himself from South's thought process. This is always a process, however, and they're connected fully at the outset.

"I'm here," he says, for the benefit of the Jorgmund people. "With South."

South pulls a face at the moment of connection. Unlike North or York, she's never quite become accustomed to the sensation of another person in her head and that first point of contact is always disorienting.

She actually reaches out to steady herself on North's arm, for a split second, before shaking it off and withdrawing quickly.

"Ugh, that's never not weird," South grumbles, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

Her mind is... loud, Delta was right about that, like everything about South has always been loud. There's a rage in her that's constant bubbling under the surface and beneath that there's everything else that she doesn't let people see. When she reaches for North, Theta might catch the moment she fluctuates between the instinct to seek support and the instinct to always appear steadfastly independent.

To her credit, she does her best to bury the less-than-positive feelings she holds towards AI (and, in particular, towards Theta himself) when Theta enters, but it's hard to push down the burst that come with his arrival. Thoughts about how he's always represented something standing between her and North, to South; someone, something, that suddenly usurped her position as North's priority even though being that priority was always conflicting in itself.

Now all muddied by a single word: son.

"Are you alright, Theta?"

All South's thoughts and feelings flood Theta for an instant and he feels disoriented and, briefly, completely unwanted. It takes a moment for him to realize Delta's speaking to him.

"I'm okay," he says.

Before he manages to wall himself off, South will receive an impression that Theta's afraid of her—of her temper and her impulsiveness—unsettled by the fact that Theta's very existence has driven a wedge between the siblings. No, not unsettled—guilty. He hates that in order to feel stable he has to cause a breach within a sacred familial bond.

"I'm here with South," he finally announces for the Jorgmund people's benefit. "She just wants to get this over with."

"What's she thinking?" asks the leader.

Theta balks a little at being asked this. He doesn't want to reveal anything about South she doesn't want revealed. Or North, for that matter. But he has latched on to one aspect of her thoughts and he can't think of any other way to word this. Theta turns his head to look at North and to look at Delta, then back to South, before he answers.

"One time North told her I was like his son and she didn't like it. She's thinking about that."

Tucker, who unceremoniously dropped himself into the nearest seat when he got escorted in, can't help thinking something along the lines of hm, yikes.

Dirty laundry that could pass a smell check is still dirty laundry.

He's been mostly trying to tune things out. Figure out how to install that Puyo Puyo Pop thing and whatnot. There's only so much tuning out that's smart in high-stakes 'someone could be a murderblob' situations, though. Even by his standards.

Hence, yikes. Sounds like a personal family problem to immediately forget he heard about.

"Being in this Breakfast Club remake sucks ass."

South stares at Theta wide-eyed, even a little slack-jawed, before she brushes the expression away with a sneer and snaps at Tucker, "Oh, shut up."

She crosses her arms and huffs, jaw flexing. How the hell do the others handle having one of these things in their head full-time, hearing private shit like that? Or feeling... whatever that was, from Theta. Fear? Guilt? Emotions that felt... human, as real and instinctive as any of her own. Like a child who'd just been yelled at or... something.

But he's just code, right? He can't really feel things like that, right?

She shuffles uncomfortably.

"Is that enough? Or do you need more?"

The Jorgmund representative gestures at North and North nods to Theta.

"Come on back, Theta," he says.

Theta does. The thoughts that immediately flood in are fearful and anxious, but there's also a touch of pride and bravery—Theta's glad he was able to face that with his and Delta's support.

North lets Theta know, mentally, that they're going to have to have a talk later about revealing private details about their lives. There must have been a better way for Theta to confirm he knew what South was thinking.

"All right, next," snaps the rep, gesturing for South to go.

"I'm not going anywhere. Delta promised Theta he'd stick around the whole way through and he's stuck with me," South says, returning to her place leaning against the wall. "You want this to go smoothly, we stay."

"South is correct. Theta will be able to perform these verifications much more quickly with me around for support."

South cocks her head. "You heard the little green guy."

York could be difficult right now. He could say he'd take D for his test, but he 1) doesn't want to start a fight in front of Jorgmund agents and 2) actually thinks South is being reasonable in giving Delta what he wants right now. So he's quiet for a moment, then steps forward to volunteer.

"I'll go next. You ready, Theta?"

His mind's not going to be a comfortable place for the little AI, but Theta agreed to do this anyway. It's brave, for him.

"I'm ready," Theta replies, and this time connects the transfer immediately, without needing to be encouraged. Although York had warned him about transferring to him, he is comfortable enough around this agent to think it'll be less of a problem.

The first thought Theta conveys is one of bravery. He's doing his best here, and his best is turning out to be pretty good. Even if being with South made him anxious, and even though North warned him against revealing too much about what people are thinking after what he said.

Hey conveys that, too, incidentally, while he's thinking of it—he intends to do better about finding an innocuous thought to convey to the Jorgmund reps.

The feel of an AI in his mind is familiar, even if he doesn't quite fit into the spot Delta left. That still feels raw and empty, but York closes his eyes and breathes and tries to think of happy things for Theta instead of how it's still somewhat painful to take an AI that isn't his.

The first thing he conveys coherently is how proud he is of Theta for doing this even though it's scary.

"You okay in there, buddy?"

"I'm good," Theta says, sending York a thought of comfort and warmth, as well as he can—it's different here than in North's mind, and it doesn't seem like the kind of thing York would expect from him. It's kind of the AI equivalent of giving your partner agent a hug. He and North send those thoughts a lot when Theta's feeling anxious, and Theta has learned to read those times when North might need it in return.

"He's thinking about how he's proud of me for following through on this," he adds, before the Jorgmund people can ask. That avoids all talk about how much York misses Delta and how raw the wound is, though Theta definitely intends to convey that to Delta next time they can speak in private.

"You are doing very well, Theta," Delta says. From the puck around South's neck, he can't project as close as he would necessarily like to Theta and York, but he is watching them closely.

He makes a note to ask Theta about York's state of mind later. The last time York mentioned it to Delta, he was quick to reassure him that he was fine regardless, but he would like to get a proper insight into how York is doing.

"He's right," York agrees, then turns to the Jorgmund agent.

"I'm going to think about something Theta can confirm is accurate in our memories."

That should serve as proof he is who he says -- he thinks about the first time he let Delta talk to Theta, the sense of pride there again as he remembers how shy the other AI was.

"He's thinking about how he let Delta talk to me when I was feeling shy," Theta says. "It's what really happened. It helped me a lot, even though they broke the rules."

"All right, all right," the Jorgmund rep says. "We don't have all day to do this."

"Sorry," Theta says, although it wasn't his fault. He transfers back to North, feeling quite suddenly unsure of himself and upset.

"...I'll take him next," Carolina volunteers. It's either her or Tucker, and she wants to get this over with. She doesn't like being party to other people's inner thoughts, or them being party to hers.

"Come on over, Theta, I won't bite."

She can at least project outward calm over the discomfort, for the sake of everyone else.

"Just a sec," North says, and then he gets a look on his face that all the Freelancers are liable to recognize—he and Theta are having a private conversation.

There's a moment's pause before the Jorgmund rep barks out, "What are we waiting for?"

"Just a sec," North repeats, finishing the conversation just an instant later, he turns to Carolina. "Sorry about that. Turns out the Jorgmund people are making him more uncomfortable than anything going on in your heads."

"I'm okay now," Theta confirms. There's a moment where he looks at North before transferring.

Theta's feeling less brave or proud now than he was when he transferred over to York. What he's feeling now is that he's a bit put-upon—the Jorgmund people are mean and impatient, and he doesn't like it.

Carolina draws in a long breath before taking the transfer. She's tense, but her outward calm isn't all bluff: there's a deeper reserve of it than one would've expected having known her in the past.

Carolina's implant has housed three AIs: two very briefly, but one much longer term resident. Epsilon is gone, but there are traces of his presence: notes he left for himself, files organized in a nonstandard pattern that he liked better, firmware tweaks and shortcuts he found to work more smoothly with Carolina on things they did often. It's like a house someone walked out of one day and never came back, bed still unmade and dishes still in the sink.

For her part, while Carolina is calm she is also worried about what is going to come to mind. She's actively trying not to think about her father, which means (of course) flickering memories of him across the years keep poking up. There's also some frustration. She can't keep those thoughts down, and she can't just get out there and start solving this shapeshifter problem. She wants to be moving, there's a timeclock here, she's never been great at waiting.

Theta immediately feels a longing to know more. Epsilon. Her father, whose identity he now knows. The source. The memories. All of it.

He wants to poke around in the stuff Epsilon left behind, but of course, there's no time for that. Theta's glad to know that Carolina feels impatience towards the Jorgmund people insisting on this process, however.

"Well?" the rep says.

"She thinks you're wasting time," Theta says, which is a bit of an extrapolation, but he thinks it's accurate nonetheless. "She thinks she can beat the shapeshifter if you'd just let her at it."

Carolina can't help but crack a smile, the old and slightly dangerous one.

"Well, I have a feeling we're not going to have to do AI honesty hour again any time soon, Theta."

But what he feels from her is gratitude.

"Do we have any burning questions he needs to answer to prove that's me?"

The Jorgmund rep flicks his wrist.

"We're not interested in wasting time any more than you are," he says.

Which gives Theta permission to transfer away, but not before sending the thought to Carolina that he intends to contact her later to talk about Epsilon.

"All right, I guess it's just Tucker now," North says, turning to where the sim trooper is sitting.

Tucker gets to his feet on cue, if only for the sake of the appearance of formality for the Jorgmund suits. Seeing how he's pretty sure the extra foot or so of distance wouldn't put Theta out of commission.

"Yeahhh, so what's his clearance on memory content that's, uh. Not work-safe? 'cause I'll do what I can to keep it PG, but I can't make promises when we're talking full brain-share. It's basically a historical minefield in there."

There's buffer space when you're just giving an AI a ride in your armor's hookup, and also that AI presents as a fully grown dude who is an asshole so it doesn't really matter anyway.

Traumatizing a kid, digital or otherwise, is not an accolade Tucker's keen to have on his resume.

"North's a grown-up," Theta says. "And I'm not really a kid. I just have a childlike persona." The latter words he says as if he's quoting someone.

"It'll be okay," North says. "Up to you if you really want to do this, though."

"Eh, if he's cool, I'm cool. Hop in, dude."

Worst-case scenario: averted. Thank god.

"Spoiler alert: I don't think I can solo PVP the magic shapeshifter without getting fucking destroyed."

Theta's in Tucker's head now. It's a lot, after having changed hosts so many times so quickly. He's feeling a bit shy, since he doesn't really know Tucker at all. That's the overwhelming sense Tucker will be getting from him—a shyness, and a desire to make a new friend.

He'll find Tucker fairly amenable to the prospect, somewhere within the full tour of the place. Warm about it, even.

Behind that, and the brief terrified mental equivalent of being handed someone's baby to hold for a few seconds, Tucker is mostly just... restless. Not great at settling on any one particular line of thought at the moment. The NSFW historical minefield is less of a going concern than advertised, in that light. It's a process he's been working on, okay.

He's impatient to get cleared by Jorgmund so they can get this security hunt thing over with, in the most asspained way possible. Irritated about how bullshit their security apparently even is.

Half-missing his friends, because they could at least be here complaining about how this is all dangerous bullshit and Jorgmund's security sucks as a unit. (So because he knows how they work and what they can do and hates feeling alone in a sea of Freelancer Gossip, basically.)

And he is, in fact, quite sure that in a one-on-one fight any shapeshifting murder monster would hand him his ass.

"Oh, little dude, if you ever wanna do a mental screener of the Blood Gulch take on Reservoir Dogs after this? Hit me up. You know I've got that shit memorized."

Yes obviously the best time to bring that up is while Theta is trying to work. It's the best movie, ever, of all time.

This immediately takes precedence over anything else going on, of course. Theta makes his hologram hop up and down.

"Oh, North! Can I?"

Before North has a chance to answer, someone from Jorgmund pipes up: "Just verify you know what he's thinking and you can do anything you want after this is over."

Theta looks at this person, then at Tucker. "All kinds of things. Send me one thought."

Tucker rolls his eyes. Suits, man. All work and no play.

"You got it."

He goes ahead and stays in the current neighborhood of thinking about how these reps are total buzzkills. The bad kind of buzzkill, not the "grows on you eventually" Wash kind. Gross.

If Theta had a face, he'd be grinning.

"He thinks you Jorg guys need to have some fun once in a while," Theta says. "And also that you don't remind him of Wash."

"Nailed it."

Finally. A test even he can pass, by not doing anything. Easiest time since that lame alien quest.

"We done here, or...?"

Theta goes back to North without being instructed.

"Almost," says the Jorgmund rep, looking at Wash.

Wash is leaning against the wall, arms crossed, and hasn't moved since he first started watching the proceedings. He doesn't move now. Instead he stares down the rep in a silent game of chicken.

They know he's not child safe and they can probably verify he's him with a brain scan to see if he has the implant, a foreign body the creature might not think to emulate.

"I already told you when you came to get me and made me come here. Not a chance."

For multiple reasons. 1) He genuinely does dislike the feeling of anyone else in his head. Not so much he'd never allow it to happen but at least enough to avoid it when he can. But he would allow it under pressing circumstances if not for:

2) The fact he's hiding his involvement with Jorgmund. He could maybe fool a telepath like Kerrigan from getting surface thoughts, but he doubts he can cloud things from an AI directly interfacing.

And 3) He doesn't like that the Jorgmund staffer is here. He's started considering rebelling against Jorgmund. What if Theta accidentally blurts something? He half suspects that's part of why the issue is being pressed, why they're watching him.

A situation like this can be revealing in multiple ways.

"If you need other forms of verification, I was able to confirm an old memory with Carolina and most importantly of all: I have an alibi because of a very intrusive room-mate."

"Whatever," the rep says, "we'll clear you with memories. And everyone else is free to go."

North doesn't leave immediately. He comes over and gives Wash a clap on the shoulder. "I'm going to patrol the dorms, make sure everyone there is safe. Want to partner up?"

There is possibly some kind of big brothering forthcoming. Because there are more logical choices in the room for a patrol, like Carolina.

And Wash isn't sure if he wants to deal with that.

Which is why it's convenient he has an excuse not to go.

"I can't. Now that I'm cleared I'm going to see if I can be on the investigation team. I'll see you later."

Edited 2021-01-25 17:02 (UTC)

"All right, Wash," North says, as everyone else begins to filter out of the room, "but I'd like to sit down and have a talk with you after all this is over."

He gestures toward the door with his head, and then he starts walking out, too.

[closed]

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