apocalypsehowcomm | Exploring (log, open)

Entry tags:

cortana (halo)

Exploring (log, open)

Who: Cortana and ...you?
When: Early March
Where: Various locations
Summary: Cortana explores, has some fun times and some very not fun times.
Warnings: Prompt C includes a traumatic flashback and prompt D includes a corpse and the possibility for graphic descriptions of dying and death.

A) Midnight Cinema

She's never seen a movie before.

True, she has movies in her databases, but having knowledge of something and experiencing it directly are two very different things, she's found. There are a lot of things she wants to experience directly.

Today, she's at the Midnight Cinema, lounging on one of the couch like seats in her Human disguise while she waits for the movie-some cheesy Godzilla knock off, not really her thing but the other option was zombies and that's not happening-to start. The theater is perhaps a bit fuller than usual and she's managed to claim one of the better spots, so when she sees another loner pop in and start looking for a place to sit she smiles and waves and moves to make some room.

Wanna join her, o random stranger?

B) Canteen

She's not really used to this being treated the same as any other employee thing.

True, she could definitely get used to things like having a paycheck and time off, but as someone who doesn't eat, she's not really sure what to do for her lunch break. It's not really enough time to do anything substantial, but working through lunch seems to be frowned upon. At least, doing so every day is.

Today, she's at the canteen, unable to eat but watching with curiosity as everyone else does. She'll smile nervously and make eye contact with anyone she catches looking at her. Wanna say hi to the sparkly blue hologram woman? Maybe invite her to your table?

C) Wingaersheek Beach (CW: Traumatic flashback and mentions of drowning)

She'd come to Wingaersheek Beach as part of her attempts to familiarize herself with the area: she needs information to operate at fullest capacity, and there's no better source than a direct survey.

...She'd also been curious about the rock formations.

But now, standing here, staring out at the endless waves, she finds herself helpless against the tide of her own memories. Now those rock formations stir not curiosity but nausea in her as her mind turns them into masses of rotting, pustulent flesh. She stands, frozen, on the shore as the memories wash over her and she is adrift in an ocean of data, fighting against her very own nature to sink and drink and drown and dissolve and the Gravemind's presence is pressing in on all sides and she pulls inward, wrapping her arms around herself. No not again please she couldn't-

Someone might want to get her attention, the tide will be coming in soon.

D) Dogtown, based on TDM prompt (CW: Dead body, possible mentions of traumatic death)

She'd heard that, should one find something interesting in Dogtown, ADI will pay for documentation of it. She's not exactly hurting for money, with housing provided and few needs to pay for, but she wants to learn about the enemy they're dealing with, and she might as well get paid for it.

...It shouldn't be too dangerous, right?

Apparently, most days, nothing even happens. It looks like today is going to be one such day, cool and bright with clear sunny skies and nothing strange or supposedly "supernatural" in-is that a body?!

Eyes widening, she runs toward the downed form of a middle aged man, crouching down next to him and reaching out to check his pulse...

Those of you who already know how this goes might want to warn her. Or if you don't, perhaps you also want to check out the mysteriously conspicuous and yet until now undiscovered body of this very unfortunate man?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

To be totally fair, Martin also isn't super used to having a normal workplace. When your last job was basically a cult, it's kind of difficult to remember he needs to take a regular lunch break not just keep working and never going home. It means when he does take his break he usually goes to nag Jon until he eats, but today he's found himself just... sitting in the canteen, the tray empty in front of him after he'd already eaten, kind of idly looking at his phone and trying to waste time.

When he does look up and meets Cortana's gaze, he jumps just a little bit to realize someone was watching, but gives her a smile and a wave back. He sort of tries a gesture towards the chair across from him as if offering it, but it mostly looks like he's pointing at the floor- for some reason, he figures she needs a place to sit and eat lunch. It... will catch up to him eventually, but for now he's just trying to be friendly.

Oh hey, she knows that guy!

Cortana's smile widens, becoming considerably more genuine as she crosses the room to Martin's table and takes a seat.

"Hello Martin." Perhaps now he might notice that she's not carrying any food with her.

Yeah, now is about the time everything is getting stacked together in his brain and he feels just slightly stupid about it. Still, she's here now, so the company is still welcomed.

"Hello! Looks like you're doing, uhm, good." Martin covers his mouth a bit as he does a quick run-over of his teeth with his tongue, really hoping there isn't something stuck in there. "Though... do you need to... eat, exactly? I, I mean, maybe you didn't back home, but I know some people have to adjust to different things here."

"I don't. Can't, actually."

Food, she has found, just falls through her. Can't even taste it.

It makes sense, considering she doesn't have any guts.

"What about you? Anything you're adjusting to?"

"Oh." Well that's... hm, that's kind of sad. Of course, if she doesn't know what she's missing, it's probably not much to miss.

"Well, uhm-- not really? I mean, I was pretty much just... the same guy I was coming here. I wasn't, uh, some, s-some superpowered person or actually part dog or something." The look on his face says he thinks it would be cool if he was, but that's besides the point. "I guess the hardest part has been the country. I used to live in England. If you, uhm... have an England."

It might be sad from his perspective, but she's already got the part of the Human experience she's always wanted. Taste is interesting, but it's probably for the best that she doesn't need to eat.

"Being suddenly moved to a different country is a bit of an adjustment." Especially before the formation of the United Earth Government. Probably not as drastic as moving to a different world, but somewhat comparable.

Well, as long as she can have it sometimes, he supposes.

"Yeah, it's-- it's weird. Not how I thought I'd see the States for the first time." But it kind of figures, considering his life. "I mean, you-- you're from really far in the future, right? Even if you're still from, you know, Earth, it must be really different than you'd be used to."

"Technically I'm from a colony world called Reach. But you'd be correct."

It doesn't help that she spent her time in the military, dwelling in research labs or fighting space battles or exploring ancient alien ruins. Even after her little rebellion, life was much the same just ...absent of Humanity.

She shakes her head slightly, attempting to clear her thoughts. "Not every change is bad, though." She smiles.

He blinks a bit in trying to comprehend the idea that-- right, if she's from the future, of course they're all in space now. That's wild to imagine, but of course it's normal for her.

"Right, I-- world! Colony world. Gosh, I, I'm sorry, you must be getting this a lot now that you're here, but that's incredible. To, to me I mean." This must be what it feels like to be one of those people who didn't know what a computer was being thrust into this situation. "Tell me if I'm making it weird, it just seems so... so mental to be talking about other planets. I'll probably never see another planet in, in my whole life, you know? Unless this one, uh, counts."

Martin really doesn't need to be worried about putting her off with his curiosity and enthusiasm: If anything, she seems delighted by it. Look how bright her eyes are right now.

"Okay it's a little strange to be talking to people who have never heard of AI or colony worlds outside of fiction before, but I wouldn't say it's a bad thing." She looks around them.

"I never thought I'd visit other times or universes, so I guess we're both dealing with something new."

Well, at least that's nice. Someone else getting dorky about him getting dorky is always a win. He lets himself smile, a little chuckle to diffuse any awkwardness that was still present. "I guess we never stop learning, or, or something like that. Strange way to have gone about it, but making the best with what we have, all that stuff."

Martin gazes out at the room idly now too, surveying the people coming and going, finding some calm in it all. "All of this still feels normal though. People talking, spending time eating together, just... relaxing. It's nice that people are still people no matter where or, uh, w-when you go."

Cortana is a dork. She acts cool and sexy, but she is absolutely a dork.

As she listens to Martin's words, she looks around the room, thoughtful and maybe a little ...sad? There's a shadow of something not entirely positive on her features.

"I've found that to be the same for people in my universe."

He feels like he knows that look, because it's the same sort of one he's feeling. If he doesn't look too closely, he can see Tim three tables over, telling a joke while Jon looks mad and Martin tries not to laugh. He can see Sasha just around the corner, the latest notes from an artifact in hand. Across the room is him and Jon in that bunker from the worms, laughing and just barely touching hands in the middle of it all. It always started like this. It was always normal first.

"We should enjoy it while it's here." Martin figures they're both feeling particularly wistful, and he won't push on her trauma, but he will remind her she's not alone. "Things change all the time, but these moments will always be there as we go. It's important to remember the times where it was just... normal. And know that can still happen somewhere, no matter where we go or what happens to us."

The work of ADI's investigations department hasn't been of much interest to Malcolm Bright for most of his eight months here, but suddenly dead bodies are turning up - however briefly - all over the place.

You have his attention, Gloucester.

He spots the body at about the same time she does, but she's closer. He holds a hand out, rushing forward, shouting "Don't touch it!" but will she hear him? Will she pay him any mind?

Fortunately, Cortana's reaction time is faster than is normally possible for humans-she is an AI after all-and the hand that was reaching out to feel for a pulse just in case immediately stops as she whips around to look at the stranger with a startled gasp.

Congrats, you just prevented someone from having a very traumatic experience Malcolm.

"Thank you," he tells her as he closes the distance between them. "These bodies aren't... normal. I mean. As dead bodies go. They... disappear when people touch them." He's seen it a few times now. He crouches and peers at the corpse. "Blood pooling around his mouth suggests an internal injury of some sort," he explains, pointing with his pinkie finger. "Since we can't roll him over, we can't determine if some sort of trauma to his chest or abdomen caused it." He looks at her. "If you touched it, you would have found out but... it's not worth it. We can't save him. Based on his pallor, he's been dead for hours already." He looks at the woman. "My name is Malcolm Bright. I work in the Investigations department at ADI."

"Find out?" That, of all things, sticks out to her, because that one is, unfortunately, familiar. Cortana has felt the deaths of others before, and it doesn't take much for her to get an idea of what he might mean.

She withdraws her hand entirely.

"Do you think we could move the body using a branch or shovel?"

Malcolm shakes his head. "It won't help. There aren't... loopholes for this place's little games."

She sighs. That would be too easy, wouldn't it.

"I'd say I've experienced death before, but I'm more concerned about whether this body is real at all." If he's telling the truth, which she has little reason to believe he's not. This matches fairly well with everything else she's witnessed so far.

"People who touch them experience what they experienced. If it wasn't real when it was left here, it becomes real in that moment. So I guess whether it was created or exploited doesn't matter anymore at that point," Malcolm muses.

Cortana blinks.

"Maybe, but I still think it'd be good to know whether a man actually died." Really. His argument is true enough in other situations-as an AI who has experienced more than her share of simulated horrors, she knows this from personal experience-but right now she's more interested in the origins of this body that mysteriously appeared in the park.

She backs away from the body.

"If what you're saying is true, I guess there's no way to safely dispose of it."

"There's one," Malcolm tells her. He steps forward and reaches out and touches the body. It dissolves to ash. He closes his eyes for a moment, squeezes them shut, chokes for a second, then lets them open and looks over at her. "I'll just add it to my library," he says, tapping his temple. "Do you want to get a cup of coffee or something?"

Cortana starts, almost reaches out to stop Malcolm from touching the body-by safely she meant without anyone having to live through the experience of his death-but he knows what he's doing. She watches as the body crumbles into dust.

Well, it was effective in getting rid of it, at least.

"Sure." She quirks a grin. Guess he can't tell she's not Human when she's in her disguise. She can't actually drink anything but the smell of coffee and the feel of a warm mug in her hands are... nice.

"I'm Cortana, by the way. I work in IT and research."

"Malcolm Bright. Investigations."

He gestures down the street. "There's a good coffee shop just down here." He heads in that direction. "Are you doing that IT training they want us to take?"

Cortana nods. "You said so earlier. I got a little distracted, sorry." A brief, embarrassed laugh.

"It's nice to meet you Malcolm." She'll walk with him. "And actually, I'm the one teaching it."

He might have heard something about her, whether that be about her inhuman appearance, her lack of clothes (Her Human illusion is fully clothed, but when it's not active...), or her sometimes terrifying stories of spaceships being made to vent atmosphere and medical devices being turned against their owners via hacking.

B!

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