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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.

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Steve has seen the strange-acting Roomba around from afar, but never gotten close enough for it to see his feet. He's definitely mildly curious, but has maybe chalked it up to Tony being Tony and inventing something to do... something.

But today, he's just getting home from a shift at ADI when he spots... well, it looks like a box with legs. And hands. Weaving slightly, trying to avoid obstacles.

He... kind of feels the need to step in. "Hey! D'you need a hand?" he asks, jogging toward it.

AI don't sleep, precisely, but they do dream.

Cortana's dreams are rarely good.

It's one of the reasons she prefers to avoid running maintenance on herself, or at least to only do it when there are people up and around the apartment so she has something in the background to keep herself from completely losing touch with reality. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work out that way. Maybe when she first settled down and started offlining systems her surroundings weren't so silent and so empty, but it's late, and hours later when she finally stirs it's after being tormented by images of the Chief staring at her with an expression of shocked betrayal as his blood pours out into her hands, and the apartment is dark and she is alone.

When Jaeger enters the area, provided he isn't too loud about it, he'll be greeted by the sight of a tiny glowing form curled in on itself and shivering, and the sound of what might be... sobbing?

Jaeger does sleep, but this isn't one of those nights. His restlessness, his need for constant reassurance of his surroundings, leads him out to the halls of the complex on a grim nighttime patrol. There might be a curfew in the apartments, but he is security, and he can roam the halls of the complex with at least a bit of impunity, another watchful gaze keeping things safe.

For a little while, at least, but eventually it comes to a point where he decides to try and rest, even if actual sleep doesn't come. He lets himself back into the apartment with surprising grace for a man his size, light on his feet and, if nothing else, considerate of his roommates. He's more than capable of quietly making a cup of tea and returning to his room for whatever's left of the night, practiced as he is at making a soft entrance to an occupied house.

Except, it's not quite as calm as usual. Jaeger pauses in the dimness of the apartment, alarm prickling the back of his neck and down his spine at the sound of clear distress, before he fixes his attention on the source.

"Cortana?"

A box with very glittery purplish blue legs and hands, most likely. Cortana is very recognizable.

She stops, shifting so she can sort of awkwardly peer around the box at Steve.

"That might be nice." She sounds just a little strained.

She looks up, startled, and there's a burst of light as she uncurls and shifts to her larger form. Her color is a very pretty silvery blue that's common when she's in a quieter or more solemn mood, but she's doing her best to hide any sign that she was crying or that anything was wrong at all.

"Jaeger?" Unfortunately, the thing about real actual tears is that the streaks they leave behind don't just instantly disappear, and her voice has a telling thickness to it.

"It's just me." His voice is quiet in the stillness of the dim apartment, softened by the late hour. "Are you alright?"

He's still not entirely used to Cortana as a presence. His world doesn't allow for that kind of technological progress, and while magical illusion is certainly capable of it, it's not a common thing.

Even with that difference, though, he can still read the more obvious signs of her distress. He might not always have something to say, but he watches, very carefully, filing away little details about his surroundings and the people around him. A survival mechanism most of the time, but also...

Well, he's human. And he genuinely likes Cortana even if he can't always figure her out. So he stands there, a bit uncertainly, but his voice gentle.

Steve grins a little and shifts quickly to insert himself on the other end of the box, sliding his hands under it to help her manage by taking some of the weight. "Is this yours?"

"I'm fine." It's said, perhaps, a bit too quickly. "Just a dream."

Except no, she really did betray the Chief, even if it didn't unfold like that.

How can she be doing this? How can she just be here, just live as though nothing had happened?

She doesn't look at Jaeger. "Do you need something?"

"Ah." He's entirely too familiar with that. Though he rarely has capacity for tears anymore, late, silent hours and the heavy weight of his mind's nighttime wanderings is something he knows all too well.

"No, I didn't need anything. I just came in, and I wanted to make sure that you're alright." He hesitates, torn between what he can offer and the option of leaving her be. Sometimes solitude is better. Sometimes, it's an immeasurable burden when you're alone with your thoughts.

"I'll be awake a while longer if you need anything, though." He finally settles for that. "And...I'll make some tea, if you want any?"

She makes a noise. "I can't drink tea, remember?" She can't drink anything. Even just trying to put stuff in her mouth results in it falling through her to the floor.

No matter how much she wishes she could taste it.

"It is. Figured I'd treat myself." Her tone is playful. She didn't need to buy herself a fancier test body. Ideally she's hardly even going to use it.

"Thanks for the help. I'm assuming you already know where apartment A2 is?" He is friends with Tony, after all.

"Oh, something good, then," Steve says, which is - nice to hear, really. Good things aren't exactly hard to come by, here, but with everything the way it is, they are extra valuable, he thinks.

"Yeah," he says, because he does, and glances over his shoulder to make sure he won't knock into anything before he starts heading in the right direction. "Guess they wouldn't deliver it to the door, huh? So much for modern conveniences."

Jaeger still isn't entirely used to the concept of someone that he can talk with, interact with (sort of), but can't share a cup of tea with. This world does occasionally throw him for a loop, even as experienced as he is, and he flinches slightly, immediately apologetic.

"I'm sorry. It's reflex to offer." Is there anything he can do for her? He's not entirely certain, and he's still and quiet for a moment, searching for the right thing to say.

"If you'd be more comfortable, I can leave."

Back out into the night, or into the quiet refuge of his room. If nothing else, he can offer her that much: space to gather herself.

She didn't mean to make him feel unwelcome.

"No, it's fine." After a moment she gets up. "How about you make that tea and I'll come and watch?" Like she does sometimes when he's cooking.

She's not gonna to force him to stay, but she doesn't want to be alone.

Not unwelcome at all, just considerate on his part. It's late and retiring to his room is no hardship if she needs some space. He's all too familiar with needing a little bit of time and peace. There's a lot of stress in this place, from various sources, and people handle it differently.

And if she would rather have company, that's okay with him too. He does actually want tea, and he gives a small nod at that, the slightest tug of apologetic smile. Then turns toward the kitchen, to start the kettle and retrieve his mug.

"I have a bit of work to do, still, before I go to bed. I can stay in the living room, if you want the company."

"Cortana?"

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?"

"Hey Winter."

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."

Edited 2022-09-21 07:54 (UTC)

"That'd be ...good. Thanks." She's spent too much of her life alone in the dark.

After a moment she gets up, crosses the room, and hops up onto the counter, transitioning to her tiny form as she does so. She sits on the edge, kicking her feet.

"Did I ever tell you that I spent four years aboard a derelict spaceship?"

"You could say that. Remember how we talked about me possibly getting a robotic body?" She's grinning, though it might be hard to see it.

"Consider this a test of that idea."

Fortunately the box is more unwieldy than it is actually heavy. With two of them working together it shouldn't take very long at all to get to the door.

"Oh," Steve says, curiosity obvious in his voice as he eyes the box like he might suddenly see inside it.

Of course, he can't. He might see if she minds if he sticks around to see the contents, though. (He'll understand if she does mind, though.)

"That's great," he decides, as they maneuver it down the hall. Once they reach the door, he says, "Here, let me take the whole thing for a second, you get the door open."

Jaeger works quietly and briskly, the same attentive professionalism that he applies to most tasks. Even his evening tea. Cortana settles herself and he's prepared for quiet companionship, so he can't help but glance up in mild surprise at the offering of information.

"No, you didn't." He pauses, processing that information. The idea of extended space travel is still a new one to him, given the world he comes from has barely made it to Mars, and it always seems a little unbelievable.

But she's talking, and he's happy to listen. "That sounds quite lonely." It's an invitation for her to keep going, if she wishes, and he glances up occasionally with steely blue-gray eyes, watching her thoughtfully between the simple tasks of tea.

He frowns at her nose, taking the last couple steps two at a time, and fishing out his handkerchief for her, offering it out for her to wipe it off or staunch wherever that blood might be coming from.

"Test driving?" he asks. He might have missed her roomba experiments.

She won't stop him, though it's unlikely to be as interesting as he thinks.

"Alright." And she'll hand off the package to him and open the door to the shared apartment. It looks much like it always does-that is, Tony's stuff takes up so much of the main area you might think he was the only one who lives here. Seeing that he's managed to leave a mess on the couch Cortana sighs and, grumbling the whole while, goes to tidy it, leaving Steve to set the package down wherever he feels like.

She takes the handkerchief gratefully and does her best to staunch the flow.

"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.

Eda is also... well, running errands is the excuse for taking a walk more than it is a thing that she needed to do, but she's wandering around Gloucester. When the rain begins she has a brief moment of panic. For all the time she's spent in the human realm before this, she's still more used to boiling rain.

On instinct, she quickly ducks under the nearest tree before remembering that the weather here isn't dangerous. Still, she stays where she is for a moment and... is that music? She tilts her head to the side, ears twitching curiously.

She can't hear it clearly, but the music carries a feeling with it that reminds her of bard magic. Or maybe she's just very, very tired all on her own. She really is, physically and emotionally. Maybe she should just have a nap under this tree, wouldn't be the first time.

In fact, she's just about ready to curl up on the ground when she catches the moment of someone across the street collapsing. That snaps her out of whatever was happening and she decides to check on them, crossing to the nearby tree before she spots that it was actually someone she knows.

"...Blue? You good there?" Eda nudges Cortana lightly with her foot before crouching down to touch her shoulder.

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B because Steve is a good neighbor 8D

For Jaeger

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D