apocalypsehowcomm | (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:

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She can feel pain in some circumstances. Generally circumstances of direct injury to her holobody or her coding. She'll likely link the android body up to her ability to sense pain too, if only because she wants to be as human (and thus hopefully as far from entity influence) as possible.

...Cortana blinks, pausing as she looks down at the partially assembled robot. "For this time period? No. Humans advanced pretty fast in the early days -- it's genuinely impressive." For other time periods? She comes from 500 years in the future and yet had no body and went insane due to planned obsolescence: what do you think?

Not that Steve knows about any of that. She's not going to tell him either, instead going back to work.

"There we go..." She mutters as one of the last pieces clicks into place.

"Oh," he says, and - well. That's nice to hear. She'd know, after all, he figures.

Anything else he might ask gets pushed down the list, though, as he watches her get the last piece together. "So how's it work? Transferring yourself over. It's probably way simpler than I think, I'm guessing." He's adapted pretty well to 'modern' technology, but sometimes his idea of what to expect is still just a little skewed.

Edited 2023-02-14 03:25 (UTC)

"Well for one, this body is a projection. The actual me is in here." She takes her necklace off and holds it out for him to see. It's a flash drive, and she's got a string looped through a little bit on the end that was likely originally meant for hooking it to a keychain.

She turns her attention to the robot "And in the early 21st century, plug ins for flash drives and other USB devices were near ubiquitous -- as outdated as it is in my time, they used to use these for everything. Take a look." She'll indicate the main part of the body that is presumably a part of every configuration and oh look, there are two USB ports there.

Steve blinks, but, "Oh - right." He laughs a little - at himself. "I sort of just got used to thinking of you being... you, like that," he says, motioning to, well. Said projected body.

"But you're right," he agrees, because he is by now very familiar with the little USB ports that seem to be on nearly everything. "That does seem pretty simple." He grins a little, then frowns a little. "Is that thing - uh. Reinforced?"

He certainly doesn't want something to happen to the flash drive - and thus, happen to her.

She smiles "To be honest, I do too. The body is a reflection of my self image."

Which, on the one hand, her body looks exactly how she thinks she's supposed to look, which is pretty nice. On the other, you'd think she'd be more fucked up by the knowledge that it's not 'really' her... except she's not. And that's not even getting into why an AI would see themself as a human in the first place...

Her smile doesn't fade in response to his question, either. "Don't worry, these little things are tougher than they look." After a moment, she takes the necklace off and holds the little device out to him so he can get a closer look. It might seem like she's being awfully casual with what is essentially the core of her being, heart and mind and soul all wrapped into one, but she spent most of her life being handled like that. It's just not a big deal to her.

Steve's got a pretty strange sense of self, even if he's never examined it. His body changed literally in a matter of minutes, and sometimes he still sort of forgets what size he is or that he doesn't need to worry about certain things. Hell, half the time he's small and his dreams are in washed-out colors with half of them missing. So it's definitely not his place to question what anyone does or doesn't think they should or should not look like. Maybe Cortana's got it easiest of all, if she looks exactly how she thinks she should, and that's that.

He does lean in closer, inspecting it, though keeping a polite distance. Even if she's not being particularly serious about it, he still considers it worth being careful. "Good," he says, grinning a little as he leans back. "I mean. I always knew you were tough."

He is definitely not the kind of guy to judge someone on physical appearance, after everything he's been through. And he definitely means what he says. "Well. Don't let me keep you from enjoying your new body. Should I get out of your way and let you have at? I can get the door for you and prop it open if you want to get out in the hallway."

She smiles at his words, both about her being tough and at his offer.

"Always the gentleman, huh?" She sets the completed robot on the floor. "That'd be lovely." Propping the door open, that is.

"If you're still curious you're free to follow me around, though I'm afraid I won't be much for conversation."

Steve grins a little. "Only when it's warranted." Because he's not always polite, even if it might seem that way.

But he is also curious. "I might keep an eye on you for a little bit," he decides. "If that's okay. I don't mind if we don't talk."

He's perfectly happy to just follow along and see how the new body works out.

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maybe wrap this one up?