[closed]

[bothbarrels]

Who: The Are Vee Bees, generally
What: Having Theta verify their identities
Where: A public area
When: During the Babadont plot
Warnings/Notes: Mentions of mental trauma, swearing; will add to this if needed

North is standing near the corner of the room, across from the doorway, waiting for each of his former teammates to be brought in and be made ready to have him transfer Theta to them for verification purposes. South is with him, with Delta at the ready to support Theta through the entire process. Once everyone has arrived, the man from Jorgmund who's spearing this process gestures for North to begin.

"All right, Theta," he says. "Remember, you're free to return to me between each transfer. You ready to begin?"

"Ready," Theta says.

"You first," North says, gesturing to South.

Comments

[infailtration]

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.

[inner_child]

"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.

[infailtration]

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?"

[inner_child]

"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.

[ownperson]

"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.

[infailtration]

"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.

[inner_child]

"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.

[onequartershark]

"...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.

[bothbarrels]

"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.

[onequartershark]

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.

[inner_child]

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."

[onequartershark]

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?"

[bothbarrels]

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.

[fuckingaqua]

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.

[bothbarrels]

"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."

[fuckingaqua]

"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."

[inner_child]

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.

[fuckingaqua]

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.

[inner_child]

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."

[fuckingaqua]

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.

[inner_child]

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."

[fuckingaqua]

"Nailed it."

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

"We done here, or...?"

[bothbarrels]

Theta goes back to North without being instructed.

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

[parannoyed]

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."

[bothbarrels]

"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?"

[parannoyed]

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."

[bothbarrels]

"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.