apocalypsehowcomm | It's hard for me to come up with good titles

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cortana (halo)

It's hard for me to come up with good titles

Who: Cortana and ...you?
When: Early December
Where: ADI building
Summary: Cortana is still adjusting to the constraints of her new body… and she’s very much not adjusting to the sudden weirdness that is going on with the ADI building.
Warnings: Mentions of drowning, possibility of Cortana doubting/not trusting her own experiences, will warn for anything else.

A)

"You know, I hadn’t really considered the possible issues of this particular challenge." Cortana muses to herself as she watches other people learning to swim in survival class. She’s sitting this one out for now – her body is a little too dense for actual swimming – but it’s brought up some questions that she might want to get an answer to sooner rather than later.

Getting wet won’t destroy her, she knows. She can even submerge herself for a little while before it starts to cause damage. But. She’s physically incapable of breathing, of experiencing oxygen deprivation (The literal kind, at least. The general sensation of being out of breath is something she’s unfortunately entirely capable of feeling, albeit stemming from not intaking and processing data instead of air.) as an organic would, and she’s discovered that abilities that go beyond what is typically defined as humanly possible might affect her breaking her connection with the Eye.

Even if she can’t just stay under water, even if it’s damaging to her, even if her inability to swim actually means that bodies of water pose an incredible risk… will that lack of actual breathing compromise her efforts? And what will she do if she gets stranded in the middle of a deep pond or lake or caught in a flood? Give up and die?

She sighs. She really ought to figure out some sort of protocol for this sort of situation, even if she currently plans to avoid deep water entirely.

B)

She might have had to give up a lot of her abilities when she transitioned to her new form, but memory is one thing that Humans can possess on a level to rival an AI (even if such a thing is extraordinarily rare), and so that is one part of herself that she’s kept.

Even if she has some trouble with trusting herself nowadays.

It is thus quite jarring when she turns into what every part of her mind says is the hallway that leads to the stairwell only to find herself at the door to the canteen. Immediately, she comes to a halt and stares, blinking.

What? She wasn’t even on the right floor. Seeing someone else nearby, she attempts to catch their attention.

"Excuse me. I know this is a bit of an odd question, but can you tell me what floor we’re on?"

C)

Well, that sure was an experience.

She’d spent a whole day having to re-memorize her internal map of the building she’d been working in for almost a year now, only to have things abruptly return to their original layout. It was ...deeply disconcerting, especially as most people she had questioned seemed to think that nothing was amiss, either during or after the switch.

The evening after her experience finds her in the library, looking through every scrap of information she can find on the ADI headquarters building and its layout. She’s found or purchased a notebook somewhere and has copied down everything about how the building is supposed to be and all the changes from her experience, including simple hand drawn maps of the areas that she explored that day and the normal building layout for comparison. She doesn’t have the experience sketching and drawing things that Dr. Halsey has, but she does have the basics of the skill and the previously mentioned perfect memory, so the maps aren’t pretty but they’re easy to read and accurate. She’s poring over them and muttering to herself obsessively. She doesn’t even look up at anyone who approaches.

...Wanna bother her?

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Well, shit.

When Cortana had decided to switch to a robotic body, she’d figured that power sources and keeping herself adequately charged were just an inconvenience she’d have to deal with. And she’d been right, but she’d underestimated just how inconvenient it could get. It wasn’t just like a Human needing to sleep, because a Human could skip sleep if necessary, while if Cortana tried running with low batteries she’d quickly fall into a coma.

...And given how she’d managed to get herself locked out after curfew, that was a problem.

"Goddammit." She knew some people at Bonnie’s right? She’s pretty sure Beau is staying there. Well, hopefully she, or someone else she knew, was awake and willing to let her spend the night.

...She’d only been to this place once before, to check out the memorial room. Did she need to knock to enter the building like this or could she just go inside and ask around to find who she was looking for? Better to ask forgiveness than permission in this case, probably. She goes inside.

"Hello?"

Beau isn't the type of person to be much of a homebody, but luckily for Cortana, she's actually in tonight. She still hasn't shaken the habit still of hanging out in the common area, even though there's more people actually moving in now, so when Cortana walks in she's sprawled out taking up an entire couch with a book held above her head. She only jerks up when there's sound, and slowly lowers her book towards her hip.

"Hey, uh. Hey. You're not usually the kinda lady I see at night around here." This is a joke, kind of, but also a bit literal. "What's going on?"

Cortana is simultaneously relieved and more awkward than ever - though without the Human illusion to smooth over her robot expressions, she always looks a little awkward nowadays - to see Beau, the very person she was looking for!

"Hey." She grins, then sighs. "I may have gotten locked out after curfew. Previously, this wouldn't have been a problem, but..." She gestures at herself. "This body needs electricity. Going without won't kill me, but I will fall into a coma." Her talking increases in speed until she almost blurts out the last bit, betraying her embarassment despite clearly trying hard to play it cool.

As for how this happened, Beau has known Cortana for long enough that she's probably aware of how she tends to go really hard and throw herself into whatever task (or tasks) is her current priority, whether that be learning or fighting, often to the point of near self-destruction. With her new processing limits, it was really easy for her to just become so absorbed she didn't think to check the time.

(You know, this might be a little surprising, but as much as Cortana identified with and envied Humans and wanted to be close to them, that didn't mean she actually wanted to be one. Like, sure, she wanted a fleshy or otherwise solid body, to be able to do things for herself and protect and share affection with those closest to her but ...she already had that. In fact, she was giving up some of that by transferring to a robot body in order to break her connection with the eye - she'd known from almost the beginning that once this was done she wouldn't be able to feel things the same way anymore. She'd even come to terms with that.

But what she didn't want was the weaknesses of being human. The slowness. The loss of intelligence. The powerlessness.

And yet, here she was, about to give herself just that. All the weaknesses of humanity and few of the strengths. It was worth it, perhaps, if it would grant her her freedom.)

...Tony?

(She knocked on the door to his room, unsure if he was there or currently off somewhere else doing ... who knows what he was up to these days? Despite her attempts to offer to help with whatever he was working on, she sure didn't.

She just hoped after all that she'd already asked of him, he'd still be willing to help.)

Even without the human veneer, Beau finds Cortana plenty expressive. She just works like a golem, albiet one that runs on the kind of tech her world would never understand. But she listens to the explaination, an eyebrow raising slightly as she puts it all together.

"So you're... a big phone now." That's the best she's got, okay. To be fair, most tech in this space is 'needs charge via wall', so it's not the worst thing. "Do you have your little, uh, the thing? So you can, y'know." She takes two fingers from one hand and presses them into the flat palm of the other, which is the least suggestive way she could think to display this. Be thankful, Cortana, she could have insinuated so much more sexual an act for simply charging her literal battery.

"It beats being a servant of the Eye."

She could have, and while it would have made things a billion times more awkward it also would have been hilarious. Cortana could appreciate the joke, but she's also grateful Beau didn't go that route.

"The charger? I've got it." She reaches into her purse and pulls out what is probably a much heavier duty cord than expected. She's a lot bigger than a phone, after all.

Beau just shrugs- not that she wants to be controlled by an eyeball either, but she's certainly going to fewer lengths to prevent it. That's a conversation for another day, though.

She eyes the cord, giving a little chuckle as she stands. "Well you're lucky everyone just re-did all of the, uh, electricity stuff around here. Try not to slurp the place dry though. How long you gonna need?"

[ It's fair that Cortana finds herself stumped over what Tony's doing these days, especially since he's generally quite vocal about his work (in addition to, you know, nearly everything else in his life); he's been rather secretive about many of his projects lately, even going so far as to relegate himself to his room most evenings to tinker away in lieu of his usual practice of sprawling all over the living area. Truly unusual indeed.

It certainly doesn't sound like Tony is up to anything sketchy, though, as his music has been blaring just as loudly as it always does, and he only hears Cortana because she was lucky enough to knock while he was switching songs. ]

Oh, shit-- Yeah? Come in, door's unlocked.

(She really wants to know what the Hell he's doing. Hopefully, given how adamant she is about breaking her entity connection, he'll know better than to let her in on any potential avatar stuff. Unless he, you know, wants an earful and also probably an intervention where he gets another earful.

She eyerolls internally at the loud music.)

It's a miracle the neighbors haven't murdered us yet, you know. (She's not actually all that bothered, though she is impressed by the soundproofing these units have. She looks at the walls with an appreciative glance.)

I know I've already asked for a lot. (She casts her eyes downward, more than a little ashamed. She can't help him with his armor in return even like they planned. She'd need to be an avatar to do anything beyond the bare minimum most likely, and that's not happening.) But I think I need your help.

Edited 2022-12-19 17:37 (UTC)

[ Don't worry Cortana! Mum is the word about secret projects and potential avatars and zombie movies, proving that Tony learns not only from his mistakes in the battlefield but from his interpersonal relationships with women as well. Round of applause for him! The fact that Cortana could easily snap his spine over her knee if she wants to has nothing to do with it whatsoever.

Aaaanyway. ]

It's a miracle half the people I've met in my lifetime haven't murdered me yet, and that's not for lack of trying, mind you. [ .... ] Like, a lot of trying. A lot a lot.

[ Seriously, understatement of the century. Tony put the tunes on pause, out of courtesy of course, then turns to Cortana with his arms crossed over his chest and a 'you have my full attention' look on his face. Just the look, though; he can only give her as much attention as he can give anybody while living in possession of a brain that fires way too many processes at once. ]

Okay, shoot. Unless you're about to ask for a loan, in which case you're shit out of luck, since the odds of me making the Forbes' World's Billionaires list this year is pretty slim.

(It might be a reasonable fear considering her past, but Cortana would be sad to know that that might be a factor in his reasoning.

She adores him, at least for now. She wouldn't kill him.)

Somehow, that's not surprising.

(As much as she likes him, Tony is definitely the sort to get himself in that kind of trouble. Especially since, you know, it's pretty clear that he was some sort of fighter in his home universe.)

Still, it'd be interesting to know what ADI uses for their soundproofing.

(She snorts, then smiles awkwardly. Money would be nice, but it's not what she's after.)

So it turns out that even relatively ordinary AI capabilities draw entity power. If I want this to work, I'm going to have to lose them.

[ The feelings of genuine fondness are definitely mutual, though Tony's own cocktail of emotions are spiked with a slim shot of something vaguely, quietly paternal. That's pretty much an inevitability where any of his AI kids are concerned-- and while Cortana isn't Tony's per se, not the way JARVIS and FRIDAY (and Ultron) were, he's still responsible for her in a lot of ways and doesn't take that position lightly.

Which is why Tony takes his jokey demeanor down a notch (just a notch) and sets down the tool he'd been holding, sticking a pin in what he'd been working on before she'd walked in. Whatever that had been. ]

What do we mean by 'relatively ordinary' here? [ Tony's brow furrows, his tone hesitant. ] Just so I know how worried I need to be.

(There are probably a lot of potential jokes about that, stuff about how she doesn't have a father so the slot is open, or whether he really wants a paternal relationship considering who her mom is... but honestly Cortana would be surprised to know he felt that way. She sees him as a friend and herself as somewhat of a burden.)

Well, I don't think I need to find a way to eat, at least. (She grimaces, then looks visibly relieved at that thought - figuring digestion out would be a nightmare.) But ...I don't think I can ever link to or transfer myself between different systems anymore. Or operate at accelerated timescales. (Her voice goes small and awfully quiet, and she doesn't look at him. She'd be giving up everything that makes her useful. It feels like a betrayal of sorts to this person who has done so much to help her. How will she repay him now?

Nevermind the logistics of trying to limit an AI like her to human timeframes without completely and irreperably screwing her up.)

"Eight hours. About as long as a Human needs to sleep." Which is probably why this whole thing is so incredibly awkward for her.

You want to have the cute robot lady spend the night in your room, Beau?

Ah...yeah. [ Tony winces. ] Shoulda called that. S'why I can't run my suit here, not without a proper interface. Told you about FRIDAY, right? No matter what I do, I can't seem to create a replacement for her, that's why I asked y--

[ Oh.

Well, that explains the long face. Arms still folded, Tony relaxes his stance a little bit and leans down, turning his head slightly and making a pretty good show of physical comedy as he tries to meet Cortana's downcast eyes. ]

Hey, come on. Don't look so glum. I'll live. [ For now, anyway. ]

Sorry.

(Despite the reassurance, she still doesn't look at him. It's hard for her, a creature used to being useful, whose entire self-worth is based around her capabilities, to feel like she has nothing to offer. Even harder when he's already done so much for her.

Hardest of all when so many people from her world have tried to discard her when she ceased to be useful.)

As it is, I wouldn't be able to help anyway: my own abilities require an entity, and I'm trying not to become an avatar.

(It feels like a poor excuse.)

[ Yeah, no, that's not gonna do. Tony won't have her feeling guilty because he can't operate his own damn suit. ]

Hey, it's fine. I mean it. We're gonna figure this out.

[ Ever since he discovered just how complex Cortana's programming is, Tony has had a vested interest in maintaining its stability-- because she's his friend, of course, but also because he knows what happens when an AI goes completely rogue. She knows, too. ]

Just tell me what you need.

(She does know. She also knows there's a much easier way to keep an AI from breaking down and going nuts than putting in all this work.

It's just that said method involves terminating the afflicted AI.

A part of her thinks that what he should do. Another part is terrified of that turning out to be right.)

I ...I've never ...No one's ever done anything like this before.

(She can't bring herself to say it, but she doesn't quite know what she needs or how to go about constraining herself in this way. Removing wireless and transfer capabilities is one thing, but some parts of her rely on being able to function at AI speed. Is there a way to limit her so that she's functionally slowed to Human timeframes while still ensuring those vital functions are able to properly operate?)

Edited 2023-01-01 03:32 (UTC)

[ Predictably, that statement doesn’t seem to make Tony doubt himself at all. On the contrary, he perks up like a puppy who just heard the word ‘walk’. ]

Again I’d like to stress that the hands you were in before weren’t mine, and were therefore inferior by default.

[ He’s light on his feet as he goes to power up his suit, as if hit with a surge of energy. You know just what gets him excited, Cortana. ]

I can manually wire you up this time, so no Entity powers required. I just wanna run some diagnostics first.

I'm going to take that as an insult to my mother and not the Chief.

(The look in her eyes isn't angry, but she is unimpressed. John did everything he could for her, and even if he doesn't really understand AI he is absolutely off limits. Her mother is not, but Cortana does still love her.

Her expression is one of trepidation as she watches him power up the suit. His enthusiasm clearly isn't shared.)

Alright.

Edited 2023-01-01 12:35 (UTC)

Uh, of course? What kind of question is that. Her grin gets a bit wider in a knowing sort of look, and closes her book.

"Oh, so it's a nighttime stay. Y'know, not the first time I've spent a night with a cute girl." Wink. She has to, the joke is too easy. "C'mon. I'm on the second floor. You ever been over here? It's really kinda cozy."

Me? Insult someone? [ Tony momentarily pauses his rummaging and gasps, slapping a hand over his heart, mock-offended. ] Never. That was a statement of objective fact, Dot Matrix. Can't argue with facts.

[ Necessary equipment in hand, Tony walks back to Cortana and sets her up, which doesn't take more than a minute or so. It's still a minute or so of silence that he can't stand, though, so he fills it with (surprisingly melodic) humming in lieu of his usual music until he's finished. ]

Okay, all set. [ Before Tony goes to suit up, though, he lingers near her for just a second. ] I really didn't mean to talk smack about your guy, you know. Just making sure that's well-established before you and I literally hook up. Again.

Edited 2023-01-23 09:36 (UTC)

(Congrats Tony, she's actually flustered now! Watch her as she spends a whole half a second trying not to descend into awkward sputtering!)

You know, I'd say you didn't have to put it like that but I'd be a hypocrite, wouldn't I?

(She focuses on checking over everything to make sure the setup is right. She has very little doubt that it is, but it's something to do. Not that she can really get a good look, since most of her 'hookups' are on her back, near her emergency heat vents. Yes, this means any sort of connection or maintenance requires her to take off her shirt. It also requires peeling away the skin on her back, so enjoy that bit of weirdness. She wanted to look as human as she could even without the illusion, and that's the price.)

She snorts.

"But did the other girls also have the ability to bench half a ton and translate over a hundred languages?" The tone is half playful, half boastful. To tell the truth, benching that much would probably cause her to overheat quite rapidly, but she could do it! Her capabilities had to be within human limits and well, it turns out that some humans really can do a lot.

Grinning, she'll follow Beau up the stairs. She looks around curiously as she goes. "You know, I haven't actually, aside from visiting the memorial room. It feels ...lived in." Which, true, the apartments are also very lived in but there's a uniform sterility to them that isn't present here. For someone who comes from a military background, it's actually a bit of a novelty.

"Damn, I wish." What can she say, Beau likes 'em buff. As always, it's a shame Yasha isn't here, but Beau stays quiet on that as Cortana follows her along.

"Well, that's what happens when people actually live places, and don't just use them." While she was never strictly military, her room at the Cobalt Soul was... far from homey, to say the least. They were barracks. Not homes. This place feels somewhere in the middle. "It's also housed, like, a billion people on and off, so. We kinda just have to keep making it work."

As they reach the end of the hall, Beau reaches in her pocket for a key, and then produces it and unlocks the door. "Well, here it is."

It's... cluttered, almost messy, but not dirty at least. There's a bunkbed in one corner, which looks like is actually slept in up top and the bottom is odd storage. The desk is covered in papers and books borrowed and bought, and there is a filing cabinet that must have some kind of system despite looking full to bursting. There is a closet, but the door is shut. Beau walks in, expecting Cortana to follow.

Cortana smirks. She's not even visibly muscular - the embodiment of that strong woman without the accompanying muscle trope - because as it turns out heat controlled contractile muscles are so incredibly strong that you need very little to get even professional body builder levels of strength and also she wanted to keep her robot form as close to a more human version of her original body as possible.

"Guess so." Blue eyes move to take in the little details, the wear and tear, the personal touches, all those telltale signs of the people that have been here. "So ...what made you choose the flophouse over the apartments?"

Cortana follows Beau into her room without hesitation, already scanning for a useable outlet.

Absolutely. It would be completely against protocol.

[ Tony beams, pleased with himself for having successfully lightened the mood. With how...unpleasant things got last time, he wants this experience to be as painless for her as possible, and will therefore resort to stupid innuendos as many times as he deems necessary. You've been warned, Cortana. ]

Okay, running basic diagnostics now. Should only take a second. We're both batting in the dark here, so I'm anticipating some bumps in the road, but don't worry. I won't let anything catastrophic happen.

There's plenty of outlets if you know where to look; there's one or two by the desk, one by the door, but Beau moves to the bottom bunkbed and starts to move things aside. The blanket and mattress is still on there, and conveniently, there seems to be a plug right next to the beds.

"Because I didn't know who the hell would be watching me in there. I came here day one." Not that the ADI weren't nice, but Beau's job at home was rooting out corruption even in her own organization, so... better to not be living there, too. "Plus, I knew a guy living here. Felt weird not to be staying with him. What about you?"

(You know, she much prefers it being the other way around, with other people struggling not to react to her innuendos.

She huffs at him, but the pouty awkwardness doesn't last long.)

Don't worry, I know it wouldn't be like you to disappoint a girl.

(...Yes, she does mean it that way. Cortana is also a make jokes to comfort herself and others sort of person.)

Oh, well that's convenient.

"Thanks Beau." The smile and gratitude are genuine. While she's waiting, she'll take her shirt off -- she needs to keep her back uncovered to help prevent the battery from overheating while it charges. Also, Beau's reaction will be a good way to tell how realistic she looks to an actual human who hasn't been working on building this body.

"Honestly, I didn't really feel like my own room or apartment was necessary, I just took what was offered because ADI insisted. And then I found out one of my roommates is a robotics expert."

Ultimately, the rooms in Bonnie's were made for two, there's just never quite enough people here to really necessitate it. She had expected Jester to move in, but she seemed to prefer the ADI spaces, and Beau wasn't too broken up about it. Point being- there's space.

Ironically, Beau isn't incredibly phased by the shirt, if only because she was kind of expecting it by now. Not that Cortana is predictable, but Beau is a little bit used to her flaunting her fake tits. She looks, though, because hey-- she's curious about how realistic they're supposed to look.

"Well, that works out. Are they the one who built you all, uh, all this? Or was it a whole team thing?"

Cortana pouts momentarily at the lack of reaction. As for the tits, well, those are probably the most realistic part of her chest. Sure, everything looks Human enough at first glance, but the major computery bits had to go somewhere and under that human skin is a hard case full of equally hard robot organs. Except the tits. Those are soft and jiggly as would be expected. Her extensive 'tattooing' obscures some of the details, but she's got nipples too.

After a moment, she grins. "Like what you see? I wouldn't say it was a whole team, but Tony and I did have some help working on it. Mostly with funding and materials."

There's probably a joke here about how of course it would be the incessantly flirty dude who made her look like this ...but Cortana has always looked like this, the robot is actually really faithful to her original form, just in more human colors.

[ Tony laughs. That's the spirit! Confident that they're both on the same wavelength, Tony runs his initial scans to form a baseline for him to work with, and to compare to the logs he still has from their first, uh...hookup. ]

Okay, initial scans complete. Talk to me.

(Well, she's actually doing a lot better! The pain and horror she's experienced aren't just going to erase themselves, but without the conditions that had pushed her so far in the first place and with the assistance of a competent programmer, she is, in fact, continuing to recover. Of course, given that she was already surviving and starting to repair herself despite damage that should have bricked her several times over and would have bricked just about any other AI, it's probably not that shocking, but still.

He can probably see her own amusement spike in response to his laughter.

...It really says something that her situation here is that much of an improvement over home, doesn't it?)

Hello, Tony. (She looks at him, on the verge of laughter herself. What? He didn't specify what she should say...)

Huh, that's actually more than she expected. "I mean, it's really, uh-- it's not something I'm used to really seeing? Like, that they're jiggly and all. Are they soft too?"

This is the most unsubtle way of asking if you can touch someone's tits, Beau, and yet she's coming over anyway. "Can I? Or is that weird. Tell me if it's weird."

"They're actually made with some of the same materials used in surgeries to repair or enhance Human-"

Beau approaches, and she realizes her intent. She's startled, and would probably be turning more than a little pink if the robot were capable of that.

"...It is a little weird." She laughs, because now that the shock is gone, it is also kind of funny. "But sure. I've also been wondering how they measure up to the real thing."

Even though Cortana can't blush, Beau has had this effect on many, many women and is frankly enjoying the fact she can get a little bit of a one-over on Cortana. Ha ha, the genius robot is waylaid by titties. It's like the opposite of their first meeting.

But this is something Beau knows how to handle and handle well, so she just grins with a little bit of a cocky look, and waits for the okay before she moves. "Well, good news for you, I know a lot about the real thing. Tell me if you want me to stop, yeah?"

For all of her muscle, Beau's hands are gentle and warm, if Cortana can even feel it. But she does kind of cup Cortana's chest and give them an experimental squeeze-- nothing hard like crushing a grape, just to see if they give like skin.

Would Beau fare better if the situation was reversed? She isn't the one getting her titties touched, here.

Anyway, Cortana's tits are warm and even have a skin like texture, smooth but not completely so. Her 'tattoos' obscure some details, but they have nipples and areolas and everything.

Cortana is trying admirably to hide her discomfort and awkwardness at all this, but Beau can probably feel it in the way her body stiffens, particularly when she squeezes. Because she can't feel it to the extent a Human would, just a sense of pressure and warmth, and yet it still triggers a sensation of discomfort and vulnerability in her that is entirely irrational. Her tits are quite soft, albeit not quite perfectly so, by the way. They're even slightly floppy.

She makes an awkward, startled noise -- what might actually be a squeak if she weren't fighting so hard to muffle it.

Edited 2023-02-13 03:13 (UTC)

Sadly, yes. There's a couple of things Beau is good at, and one is sex. Something to do with being a monk, or-- maybe it's reach and flexibility? Who knows.

"Hey, it's alright. Not gonna go too hard. Trust me, I have experience here." For all of Beau's rough edges, this is gentle- she's smiling a soft smile, and watching carefully. "They do feel pretty real though. And I guess you must feel it. Though..."

She cocks her head, a little lightly teasing slipping into that grin. "If they're that sensitive, why aren't you wearing clothes?"

Well good for her! Cortana on the other hand, has spent most of her life touch starved to the point of desperation. She is uniquely inexperienced!

She's trying so so hard not to be even more obviously awkward but she can't even look at Beau right now, her not asking Beau to stop is more a refusal to admit how much this is getting to her than anything else. "Not as much as you'd think, actually. I can pick up warmth and pressure-" she's babbling. It's a combination of nervousness and being a huge nerd. "-but not much else. And yet I'm still responding as if..." she's less awkward now and more deep in thought, at least for a few seconds "...some relic of being based on a human, maybe?" At least until some combination of touch and Beau talking bring her back to reality.

"I have to keep my back ventilated to avoid my battery overheating." As to why she didn't wear clothes when she first came here? Force of habit + aversion to being anything like her armor wearing worst version of herself. A non solid hologram didn't really need clothes, after all. The armor had been meant to make her seem powerful when she'd mentally been at her weakest and most broken -- she didn't normally feel a need to look powerful when she could let her abilities speak for themselves.

Beau can't help but laugh, letting her shoulders shake a little. Okay, she's absolutely freaking out now, and she knows when to quit, so Beau takes her hands off Cortana gently.

"They're nice. But it's still intimate, you know? Touching and stuff. Imagine you didn't get a lot of that as, uhh, a bunch of light." While she can act dumb at times, she's never as stupid as she seems-- or distracted. "And you can have backless stuff. Or just the kinda tops I wear, usually. Might help with being able to y'know, touch people and have them touch you in a way that isn't weird for you."

As much as she tries to hide it, Beau can probably see the relief in the way Cortana's posture shifts, her whole body relaxing once there are no longer hands squeezing intimate parts of herself.

...Interesting. She's not sure whether she wants to do further experimentation to see just how human her responses are.

"True." Her nose scrunches up slightly as she thinks about it. A bra wouldn't work, because the band would prevent her from opening her vents. She'd need something totally backless... Eda's wings probably pose similar problems, maybe she should ask her.

"...Though I don't think most people are going to be that brazen about touching someone's breasts." One great thing about Cortana's far future home: for all her parading around naked, she's had basically no creepiness of that sort directed at her. This trend has continued at ADI, so she's a little naive in this one particular area.

Beau makes a bit of a face at that assumption, one that says she has been there and done that too many times. "Oh, they'll ask first. It just doesn't matter if you say no. That's when you have to break their hand. Anyway there's stuff that ties around your neck, it'd probably be fine."

Beau, for her part, just has some binding around her chest to keep her tits in place, and then what is essentially a tank top and harem pants. Loose, breezy, functional. Her moves don't really allow for armor, anyway. "Or just something, y'know, loose. Then there's room for airflow."

"Well, I guess I am several centuries in the past." She says disparagingly. Yeah there are some real creeps in the far future of the Halo universe, but that level of gross is fortunately rare.

"I'd probably need more than just loose, so I'd likely go with the tied option." Fortunately, situations where she has to strip in public are rare. Not that she's ever cared about that, given how little clothing she used to wear.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

It's hard for me to come up with good titles

For Beau

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For Tony, backdated to mid-late November

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