failedpromise (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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apocalypsehowcomm2022-09-12 10:33 am
failedpromise) wrote in apocalypsehowcomm2022-09-12 10:33 am
(no subject)
Who: Cortana and ...you!
When: Throughout September
Where: ADI apartments + various locations around town
Summary: Cortana runs some tests in preparation for her plan to transfer herself to a robotic body + supernatural music interfering with errand running
Warnings: Fainting spell + possible mention of nightmares in the last prompt. Will warn for anything else that comes up.
A) There's a roomba wandering the apartment buildings.
It can be most often found in the hallways of building A, but that doesn't mean it never shows up in the others. At first glance it might seem ordinary, but there's a sort of purposefulness to its movements that an ordinary roomba would lack. It's not mindlessly covering as much ground as possible in an attempt to properly clean the floors; in fact, it doesn't appear to be cleaning anything at all. It moves in a straight, or at least mostly straight, line down the hallway, occasionally bumping into obstacles (primitive sensors suck) but does a remarkably good job of navigating around them ...at least until it bumps into your feet.
...Hey, Cortana recognizes those feet! Or at least, she thinks she does. Roombas can sort of see the floor under and in front of them but they don't see very well and Cortana is trying to limit herself to the abilities of the system she's currently inhabiting. She gently bumps against the feet in question before doing a little circle around you, whoever you are. Hi friend!
B) Apparently Cortana got a package in the mail. It's a pretty big one too, the box doing a pretty good job of blocking her view as she tries to carry it to her apartment. She's stumbling around a bit awkwardly as she tries to avoid tripping or bumping into anything. It's probably kind of funny to watch, honestly.
...You might want to get out of her way though, lest she bump into or trip over you.
C) There's a strange robot wandering the apartment buildings again. This time it's a more advanced design, modular, with several possible configurations:
D) Oh hey! Cortana is actually out doing something other than playing with her new robots for once.
Or at least, she was.
Caught in the rain while on her way back from running some errand or other, she's taking shelter under a tree when the music reaches her ears. It's nice-the audio receptors on the robot bodies just aren't as good, when they even have them, roombas can't hear unless you hack them to do so-and she'll spend several minutes just listening, and listening...
She's not stressed, but transferring between systems and forms as much as she's been doing takes power, and she's been cutting back on the whole 'scaring people into practicing proper cybersecurity' teaching tactic, so she's been running low...
Yeah she's out. One moment she's got her eyes closed and an expression of peace on her face, the next she collapses bonelessly into the mud.
When: Throughout September
Where: ADI apartments + various locations around town
Summary: Cortana runs some tests in preparation for her plan to transfer herself to a robotic body + supernatural music interfering with errand running
Warnings: Fainting spell + possible mention of nightmares in the last prompt. Will warn for anything else that comes up.
A) There's a roomba wandering the apartment buildings.
It can be most often found in the hallways of building A, but that doesn't mean it never shows up in the others. At first glance it might seem ordinary, but there's a sort of purposefulness to its movements that an ordinary roomba would lack. It's not mindlessly covering as much ground as possible in an attempt to properly clean the floors; in fact, it doesn't appear to be cleaning anything at all. It moves in a straight, or at least mostly straight, line down the hallway, occasionally bumping into obstacles (primitive sensors suck) but does a remarkably good job of navigating around them ...at least until it bumps into your feet.
...Hey, Cortana recognizes those feet! Or at least, she thinks she does. Roombas can sort of see the floor under and in front of them but they don't see very well and Cortana is trying to limit herself to the abilities of the system she's currently inhabiting. She gently bumps against the feet in question before doing a little circle around you, whoever you are. Hi friend!
B) Apparently Cortana got a package in the mail. It's a pretty big one too, the box doing a pretty good job of blocking her view as she tries to carry it to her apartment. She's stumbling around a bit awkwardly as she tries to avoid tripping or bumping into anything. It's probably kind of funny to watch, honestly.
...You might want to get out of her way though, lest she bump into or trip over you.
C) There's a strange robot wandering the apartment buildings again. This time it's a more advanced design, modular, with several possible configurations:
- A wheeled robot is driving through the hallways. It's a bit faster and more maneuverable than a roomba, but it's still a bit clunky in comparison to a human-and it absolutely cannot handle stairs. Which is why one might find Cortana in her normal hologram body carrying the thing between floors.
- This time the robot is still in a wheeled configuration, but it's also equipped with an arm. It's a bit awkward, and even slower and clunkier than the first version, having to fold the arm up in order to move without tipping over, but it has one ability in particular that is proving to be invaluable: it can operate the elevator.
- This version doesn't have wheels (or an arm), but stubby little legs! Cute! ...And also very slow and awkward. Still, it can move around outside without immediately getting stuck, so Cortana has taken it outside and is now 'joyriding' on the lawn.
- No new configuration here, Cortana just managed to send her temporary body tumbling down the stairs by accident and a bunch of those oh so convenient modular parts popped right off and scattered over the floor. Her bound flash drive took a bit of a hit too-her hologram's nose is distinctly bloody and there's a lot of grumbling, pained noises, and swearing as she picks up the mess she made.
D) Oh hey! Cortana is actually out doing something other than playing with her new robots for once.
Or at least, she was.
Caught in the rain while on her way back from running some errand or other, she's taking shelter under a tree when the music reaches her ears. It's nice-the audio receptors on the robot bodies just aren't as good, when they even have them, roombas can't hear unless you hack them to do so-and she'll spend several minutes just listening, and listening...
She's not stressed, but transferring between systems and forms as much as she's been doing takes power, and she's been cutting back on the whole 'scaring people into practicing proper cybersecurity' teaching tactic, so she's been running low...
Yeah she's out. One moment she's got her eyes closed and an expression of peace on her face, the next she collapses bonelessly into the mud.
C-4
Winter peers down the stairs at her and the mess of machine parts. He was on his way out, and did not expect to hear her grumbling a flight down from him.
He starts down towards her. "What happened?"
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She looks up at him, the blood on her nose and face very visible though nothing appears to be broken. It's probably just a bit creepy given she's a translucent hologram with no blood vessels of any sort.
"I was test driving this-" she indicates the robot pieces on the floor around her "-and took a tumble down the stairs. Not my finest moment."
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"Test driving?" he asks. He might have missed her roomba experiments.
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"I plan to switch to a robotic body-less entity influence." She looks at the parts scattered around her again. "Was trying to test it before attempting to do anything big or permanent." Just to clarify that this is not anything like the robotic body she would actually want. It's slow, flimsy, and limited in its capabilities... and she'd prefer to still look mostly Human.
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So she's just going to not think about that right now.
"It's modular-most of what came apart is designed to be able to come apart anyway." So she probably won't need help with repairs so much. Then again, it might be fun to let him help with reassembly. "Still, some help picking it up and carrying it all back to the apartment would be nice."
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...Probably because she can't go more than 10 feet from it so she knows it's at least still nearby.
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"I don't ...know." and the admission, even just to herself, is like pulling teeth. "I mean, obviously me, I have to be hosted in a system-I can't even move more than ten feet away from the thing-but it's, I'd have to be compressed into nonexistence to fit into such a small memory space." She starts working a little faster, searching for the drive, but it's Winter who will find it underneath two bits that look like they should come apart but managed to stay connected despite the fall.
"It even bleeds when I do." And true to her words, there's a few minuscule beads of blood around the mouth of the plug. She hasn't noticed that Winter has found it yet-she's distracted picking through this mess herself, muttering about how bizarre and creepy the whole bleeding thing is. She's a hologram, she doesn't even have a circulatory system...
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She's completely unfazed to see Winter holding what is essentially a very vulnerable piece of herself, but then letting people carry the core of her being wasn't just normal for most of her life-she was dependent on this.
She holds her hand out for it. "It'll stop bleeding when I do."
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She's completely defenseless when confronted by those things people like to call magic. She does her best to swallow the fear and bitterness that rises up at the thought of this.
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He apparently feels pretty strongly about this, it's one of the more animated and forceful things he's said. Honestly, it's a good sign, that he cares enough about fair play to even notice "cheating".
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"Winter." So much for swallowing her own bitterness. Her voice is flat, almost lifeless. "You're right. But I think I'd like to change the subject."
Given that this thread takes place after the August zombie incident he might even have some understanding: her own helplessness in the face of something vast and entirely unbound by the rules of the reality she lived in, the experience of being imprisoned and taken apart by something similar to an entity.
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She's not entirely sure what to say after that - a part of her is still reeling, trying to drag her back to memories full of terror even as she focuses on the task of physically gathering all the separate pieces of the robot that she can find.
Needless to say, she's grateful when he starts talking again, about something that isn't horribly distressing!
"I think so." She grabs one tiny bit, the last visible one, before continuing, "That's the last of them."
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She gathers what parts she can and stands up, waiting for him to do so as well before heading toward her apartment.
"Besides, this is my last chance to inhabit different systems ...even if this isn't nearly as fun as a spaceship."
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She looks thoughtful as she reminisces. "I did get involved in quite a few space battles though. Managed four kills leading a single ship against a Covenant fleet." Cortana is very proud of her ability to kick ass.