hexaflexagons | [PSL] Sidewinder reunion

She didn't run far after her near-miss with the Meta. Sigma and Maine can pursue her, but unless they get a hold of a capture unit, she has the advantage in a fight. And the message that pings her radio was unmistakable. The Director makes the plea himself, calling to her in his achingly familiar, tired drawl. He needs her help. And despite herself, when it comes to the Alpha, she has to do it. She has to.

So she answers the call. Negotiates the terms. She convinces them to put him in a robot body, like hers, all the better to make a break for it with him when the time came. And the time will come, she'll make sure of that. Her assignment is to convince him he's a grunt soldier named Leonard Church, a man who had signed up with the Blue Army of the simulation forces the Project had set up some time back. They could implant him with false memories themselves, but they must feel her word on things will help cement the illusion as reality in his thinking. Anything to make him think he's not a helpless, broken AI. Anything to keep him from realizing who and what he really is.

Whether telling him is the right thing or not, at this point Tex doesn't know, but she does know she doesn't plan on complying with every little thought the Director has about the best way to deal with him.

When she returns to the crash site, a couple of days later, she's ushered into a lab, where a blue armored robot is standing in the center of the room. She approaches him. The lab technicians withdraw and the Director stands behind the one-way glass in the next room. The lighting is dim around the edges of the room, something like a spotlight shining on the robot. "Church?" she says.

Edited (tenses) 2016-01-09 04:27 (UTC)

Church - that is his name, right? It sounds right. It's not like people just forget their names ... so it's. Yeah that's right. Church.

Church flexes his fingers and adjusts his shoulders, bounces on the balls of his feet and cracks his neck, feeling stiff. Must be ... jet lag, or getting the armor calibrated, or he slept wrong or something. He doesn't really remember. It's not like it's important anyway.

He hears his name called and he turns his helmet to look at the armored figure, staring for a moment before he can fish up any words to reply with. Even then, it's not that eloquent.

"Uhm. Hi. I uh ... hey. Do I know you?"

She looks familiar, even if he can't place it right now.

This is all-too-familiar, almost a total rehash of their last conversation. But things will be different this time. This time there are people watching over them.

"You do. I'm Tex. I talked to you a couple of days ago."

Church blinks.

"Oh! Right, right. Sure. Tex, yeah, 'course." He smiles at her, but realizes his helmet's blocking the view.

"... What's up?"

This is the moment, then. She has to start insinuating things, waiting to see if he will accept everything she says as fact. For now she has to toe the line, with the Director watching. "I was wondering how things are in your unit," she says. "I know it's only been a little while since you enlisted in the Blue Army."

It takes Church a minute to even understand what she's asking about, but that doesn't stop him from opening his mouth. "It's been great. Real great. Just been ... hanging out with the guys." He pauses, then realizes what she's actually asking, and even then it's fuzzy on what he should reply with. "Yeah, it's been fine, I guess. Nothing ... nothing too exciting happening."

"Good. You can't expect me to come around and help you all the time, you know." Testing, probing, seeing what memories are left and what her words will dredge up.

"Pff whatever. You stop me from getting punched in the face one time." He rolls his eyes and waves her off.

He's not quite sure where that memory came from, but ... that's how memories work, right? He tries to think about the time that specifically happened, but it's ... fuzzy. He remembers a cafeteria, a woman with blonde hair, and that's about it. Maybe he's hungover. That might explain it.

"And that's the only way I've ever helped you," she said dryly.

"Uh, yeah pretty much," Church huffs. "At least-- that's all I remember. If you want your ego stroked you're gonna have to find someone else, Tex."

"Well, I suppose if that's my track record I don't want to ruin it," she says. "So I don't suppose there's much reason to hang around now."

Church shifts like he's about to reach out to her, but he stops. "Wh- you don't have to leave. Not that I'm gonna be broken up about it if you do, but. Why don't we catch up? Y'know ... get a drink or something?"

She nods slowly. "All right, Church." She's not sure what the people who run the lab were intending to do if this sort of situation came up, and she's not sure she can lead him away to reach the mess hall or anything. But that's not her problem, is it? "I don't suppose you know of a good bar around here," she adds, but it seems they were prepared for this eventuality and a guard comes in with a couple of cans of juice to hand to her.

"Juice?" she says, almost seeming prepared to throw the cans back at the guard.

Church squints at the can. "He-ey, all right! Mango," he says, then looks to Tex when he hears her tone. He scoffs. "Oh don't be a baby. Maybe there's some vodka around here or something. Could make some shots."

It's funny how the lab setting and the delivery by armored guards doesn't phase him. What is going on in his programming, she wonders, that makes his perceptions so filtered? She shakes her head and brings the juice over, handing him one of the cans.

"I don't think we'll find any alcohol," she says. "But it does sound good, I guess."

"It was a joke, genius," Church mutters, taking the can from her and popping the top. "Kinda doubt the Director's gonna let us get wasted."

She stares. "You know where you are?" It sure hadn't seemed like it, earlier.

"Huh? I mean, we're in -" He pauses and looks around, actually looks around, for the first time. "A lab? That's kind of ... weird. Hey Tex, where uh, where are we exactly?"

Edited (Formatting Issue) 2016-03-03 00:39 (UTC)

Mm, okay, that's more like what she was expecting. She's here to convince him he's in the Blue forces though, so that's the line she's going to stick with, at least until she can find some way to signal to him that she's going to try to spring him from the place.

"You don't know your own base?" she asks him.

He flushes, glad that she can't see his face. Wait, if he's got a helmet on, how's he supposed to drink-- Focus, Church.

"It's not like I'm memorizing the details of the damn base every time I look around," he snaps, though it's pretty weak.

He really should recognize it. He just ... doesn't get why he can't.

She shakes her head. "Don't get lost next time you're on patrol, then, Church." Her juice remains unopened—these robots are capable of eating and drinking, but she isn't in the mood for this. Not seeing the state he's in.

But she's supposed to be putting him at ease. She tilts her head just a bit, looking at him, then pops the top.

He scoffs and rolls his eyes. "I'm a dude, I don't get lost. I just. Y'know. Wasn't paying attention. In the base. Uh." He feels his face heat up again and he looks away. "Right."

What are they supposed to talk about as they 'catch up', anyway? She can't tell him the truth. She can't talk about trying to rescue him, about how she had to leave him behind. About how she's been dodging the Meta and the Director's forces since then, about how she agreed to come back to help him through all this. She can't say a word.

She'll just have to make things up, then. Take the little pieces of memories Church still has of her time in Freelancer and see what picture the two of them can make out of it with some discussion. "I've been keeping busy since you enlisted," she says. "Lots of travel. Lots of jobs to complete."

Church is grateful for the topic change. He's uh - got messed up a little there.

"Yeah? Still banging dudes and stealing their wallets?" He asks, fond, almost. Teasing. "Or'd you move onto girls now, too? Does that count as a job?"

This is the first glimpse she's had into the distortion of Leonard's memories in Church's programming. It gives her a twinge, the way it comes out so casually, but going along with it is probably the best way to get him to accept things being the way they are. It occurs to her, too, that distancing the two of them through latching on to this memory will make certain things less painful.

"You'd like to feel that unique, wouldn't you?" she says.

Reunion

Re: Reunion

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