Log - OTA! - What’s the difference between a corpse and a shirt?

[bossyboiler]

Who: Everyone.
When: Wednesday evening, Jan 11th
Where: A rented out bar, downtown.
Summary: The wake for George Milton.
Warnings: N/A (will update as needed)

If anyone of the forcibly kidnapped to Gloucester deserved to be remembered, it was George Milton. In many ways, he was the best of them. He had been kind. He had always been willing to help and lend a hand. Unlike some whose first choice was violence (because what else was there), he had chosen to forgo that route and had come up with a much more clever solution. The solution saved lives.

It had not felt right to have a formal service for him. To put it simply, he was not a formal person. And so after much calling around, a bar had been found where they could rent out the entire place before business got too busy. It was just for a couple of hours. People could come and say nice things about George. It's what he deserved after all.

So come on in, have a beer or two, and sit a spell. Maybe you'll feel like sharing a story about George or maybe you're just there to pay your respects. There's a break in the weather, the clouds only filling up half of the nighttime sky. No acid snow for tonight.

Comments

[bossyboiler]

"Hi Cortana," Kate replies as she puts out some more cookies. She had baked a lot of them (maybe too much) and she hopes that people like them. Once she is done she gives the hologram her full attention. She offers a smile.

She isn't going to comment on how tired Cortana looks. In her mind saying that a woman looks tired is saying that she looks old. "Like the fish?"

[failedpromise]

She's not a hologram anymore, though here in the bar her human illusion looks the same as it always has. Beneath it though is no longer a construction of hard light but one of rubber and plastic and steel.

"I do. I think he'd have liked them too."

[bossyboiler]

"I do too. I think he would have found them funny." She smiles and then frowns. It's just a little bit of grief slipping in. Kate wills it away and the gentle smile soon returns. "How are you doing?"

[failedpromise]

After a moment, Cortana reaches down and pulls a ...thermos? from her purse. Don't get excited, she didn't bring anything special with her - at least, not anything to share with other people. It's literally just chilled distilled water, as will be revealed when she unscrews the cap and pours her drink into the lid - it's one of those where the lid is designed to double as a cup.

"I'm ...alright. Still getting used to the new body." She takes a sip. "And you?"

[bossyboiler]

"New body? Since when aren't you a hologram?" This is the first she's heard of it.

Kate considers something. "I'm fine. I have no real reason to complain." But she could complain, however. If she wants to but she doesn't.

[failedpromise]

"Since early November, actually." She takes another sip, grinning. She wasn't able to do that before.

"I've been working on distancing myself from the entities for a while now - considering that solid light isn't exactly normal even in my own reality, I figured a robotic body might help."

[bossyboiler]

"How'd you get it?" She has so many questions beyond that one but is going to wait until she knows more before asking.

[failedpromise]

"Tony - he's my roommate - and I built it together. ADI funded it. They're really into finding ways to defy the entities." Cortana smiles to herself. For all the drawbacks of the robot body, she is grateful to have people willing to help her with this plan of hers.

[bossyboiler]

"Wow. So does this mean you can feel things now as well as eat and drink? If ADI is funding robots, why don't they build some more to explore Dogtown?"

[failedpromise]

Cortna blinks.

"Alright, for one, the hologram actually felt things just fine - this robot is almost numb in comparison, and while I can technically drink putting anything other than distilled water in my systems would likely result in having to take me apart and clean everything as a best case scenario." She seems more amused than anything, though she gets a little more thoughtful as she continues. "And while I'd like to explore Dogtown myself, if I don't recharge for approximately eight hours every day I'll essentially fall into a coma. Other robots would likely have similar concerns. Not to mention the cost and logistics of performing repairs and the way non-sentient digital tech seems to be really vulnerable to entity interference..."

[bossyboiler]

Kate listens to what Cortana has to say. Her friend says enough that she doesn't feel the need or desire to ask anything more invasive than that. She could ask more questions but she is refraining for now.

"I suppose that makes sense given how technology has been used against us in the past." However, she would still rather send robots in to explore Dogtown than actual people. Dogtown is dangerous so when Cortana says that she would explore it herself, Kate makes a face. "Not you too. Why would you willingly go to Dogtown?"

[failedpromise]

"What, you don't find the idea of locating whoever or whatever is responsible for all that bullshit and introducing them to some high powered explosives incredibly satisfying? Not even a little curious about how in the fuck is a blood river even possible? Don't want to find out if anything in there could lead to a solution to our problems out here?"

She's not entirely serious, but only in the sense that she very well understands that not everyone is going to want to put themselves at risk for... any of those.

[bossyboiler]

"You sound a little bit like John, Cortana. Except you sound sane when you say it." She sighs. "There might be information in there that's useful, I'll give you that much but the dangers? I think they outweigh the risks."

[failedpromise]

She actually flinches at the Jon comment. Offense at the comparison? Not expecting to hear the name? Well, it's unlikely we'll know, because she's just going to not comment on that.

"And the risks that whatever is causing all this will spread beyond Dogtown if we don't find some way to put a stop to it?"

[bossyboiler]

Kate doesn't notice the flinching.

"How do we stop it Cortana?"

[failedpromise]

"I ...don't know." She admits awkwardly, sighing.

"But I know hiding from it won't help."

[bossyboiler]

"I'm not hiding. I'm just ill-equipped for things like going into Dogtown."

[failedpromise]

She looks at Kate for a moment. "True enough, but you were questioning why others would want to."

She sighs. "If you want my personal reasons for wanting to go in there, call it a combination of insatiable curiosity and not wanting to let a potential source of danger flourish so close to both a civilian population center and our primary base of operations."

[bossyboiler]

"Okay. You caught me. I did say that." She doesn't know what to do about it but she had said it.

"Which all sound very noble but I can't help but think how dangerous it is."

[failedpromise]

"I'd rather go out fighting than hiding." Despite everything, Cortana still has her pride.

...And a strong desire to never be vulnerable to vast and unknowable monsters ever again.

[bossyboiler]

"I'm not hiding, Cortana. I just know where my strengths lie. Fighting isn't one of them." Despite being taught self-defense and how to use a gun, being offensive doesn't come easily to her.

[failedpromise]

Cortana frowns.

"You're right, but I'm used to being out on the battlefield." Cortana doesn't think that Kate is hiding. Cortana feels useless, fearful, and restless with a hated enemy so close and her stuck in this robot body unable to directly do anything about it.

[bossyboiler]

"I suppose, then, that we're both at a bit of a loss." Kate sighs, "Maybe we should change the subject?"

[failedpromise]

"Probably." She looks thoughtful for a moment, then grins.

"So I wonder how long it took them to figure out we disassembled the furniture and stuck rotting fish inside?" By we she mostly means herself, because she got way too into George's fish plan and went more than a little overboard, but she won't take all the credit.

[bossyboiler]

"You did that? Wow. Can you smell? Because it's one thing to dump the fish but another to put it intricate places. I'm proud of you Cortana, that was awful."