Exploring (log, open)

[failedpromise]

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?

Comments

[failedpromise]

"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?"

[abrightboy]

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

[failedpromise]

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.

[abrightboy]

"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.

[failedpromise]

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."

[abrightboy]

"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?"

[failedpromise]

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."

[abrightboy]

"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?"

[failedpromise]

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.

[abrightboy]

"Right! That's right. The... thing it does," he makes a swirling gesture at his temple, "is very distracting." He raises his eyebrows slightly at her next statement. "Teaching it. That's great. You must be a real expert on the subject," he notes. "A lot of people here could probably use a whole, comprehensive course on using contemporary tech. It's... not contemporary for them."

[failedpromise]

"You could say that." She was designed to break cybersecurity.

She frowns though. She's had the memories of other's deaths forced upon her before, and knowing that what just happened to this person was essentially the same...

"Are you okay?"

[abrightboy]

"Oh. Yeah." He waves it off. "Perfectly fine. Perfectly. How do you take your coffee?" he asks, pulling the door open for her.

[failedpromise]

Cortana grins awkwardly, pausing as she steps through the door. "Okay I should probably come clean: I enjoy the scent of coffee but I can't actually drink it. If I try, it'll just spill everywhere."

This isn't to say she doesn't want to go to the coffeeshop though. She just can't actually partake.

[abrightboy]

"Spill everywhere? Why's that?" Malcolm asks curiously.

[failedpromise]

"Let's just say this isn't what I really look like." She grins, gesturing at herself.

"I can do most things a Human can but food goes right through me."

[abrightboy]

"...Like a ghost or like a... digestive problem?" Malcolm clarifies.

[failedpromise]

"The former. I don't even have a gut." No, really. She's made of light.

[abrightboy]

He peers at her, like he can somehow see through the ADI's disguise.

"How?" he asks with wonder.

[failedpromise]

Cortana likes to dazzle people. She prefers to do so with her intelligence, but this also works.

"Ever heard of a hologram?" She grins at him, before pausing and glancing around.

"We should probably stop blocking the door."

[abrightboy]

He glances around. "Oh."

He moves them inside.

"So... you're a hologram but... you're alive?"

[failedpromise]

Once inside, she looks around for a good spot to sit.

"I'm an AI." She grins in amusement. She certainly considers herself to be alive, though others may or may not agree.

[abrightboy]

"You must be from the future, then," Malcolm supposes.

[failedpromise]

"2560, in fact." Cortana smirks at him.

[abrightboy]

“Five hundred years,” Malcolm remarks. “Is it normal in your time, for intelligent holograms to walk around?”

[failedpromise]

"Not walking around, per se: I'm pretty unique in that aspect." She grins, an obvious pride in her expression. She's well aware that she's special and always has been.

"There are, however, plenty of holograms... they just tend to be smaller, less solid, and confined to holotanks or projectors."