promuseboxing | (no subject)

[ It was always easier to act like he was above shit like being attracted to people when he was acting as a pure AI backup for Carolina. He wasn't organic, didn't have to deal with hormones and chemicals making him act like a huge fucking asshole who got stupid over other people. Even when thought about Tex it was kind of a distant sad longing, a remnant of the parts of him that were the Director and Alpha. He'd let go of that. Or at least that's what he thought. Not that he was a total emotionless asshole; he had his friends and even if they were all morons most of he still cared about them. Tucker and Caboose were his team. And even the reds weren't that bad.

That's why he tried to delete himself, one last fragmentation to keep them all alive because he'd run the numbers and every time they all died unless he did. It didn't make dying feel any less awful knowing it was the last time but knowing that the guys would make it out alive was good enough. He was ready to rest.

Except the universe apparently can't stand to let Leonard L Church stay dead.

He's found at one of the many temples on Chorus almost a month after the battle on the Staff of Charon, unconscious in a set of blue armor. Only this time there's an actual human body inside of it instead of a robotic frame. The temple made him is a perfect sim trooper body right down to the neural implant at the base of his neck. It's one of the things that makes Dr. Grey take him seriously when he tells her who he is. In the end she calls in Captain Tucker to the field hospital where Epsilon is being held. They confiscated his armor in case he was a remnant of the Charon forces and left in in a tent wearing just a pair of fatigues that they had on hand.

And that's where Tucker will find him when he arrives, sitting in a tent with a cheap paperback one of the medics had given him when he kept complaining he was bored. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Good!

[To all of it. To it hurting, to him being a human, to Carolina breaking his legs, to letting Tucker next the bullet (knife) for them. And it was stupid or wrong to be grateful for things like that, but this was this different, this was them, their dysfunctional little standing. Then again, the same could be said for all of them, couldn’t it? Their family wasn’t exactly conventional.

He sat down on the cot, watching him and trying not to reach out and punch him again just to feel if the body was really…real. Human. He was fucking human, a whole new body and experience because that was new. It shouldn’t be possible. Church should be dead.

Tucker looked at him with a skeptical gaze, judging.]

So, what’s it like? You know, other than the whole pain thing, unless you like that sort of thing. Bow chicka bow wow. [And there it was, that assessing and curious look.] Like, you have to figure all this shit out now, don’t you?

Seriously? [ The look he shot Tucker for that was so judgmental. ] I was an AI, not a fucking roomba. It's not like I'm jumping into this whole thing blind.

[ Of course this was undercut by the fact that he kept having to remind himself not to comment about how weird teeth are, how he can't get used to the feeling of heart beating in chest. How the lingering taste of blood in his mouth from getting punched still hadn't gone away. Being human was weird.

The question had merit, though, and Epsilon took his time thinking about it before dropping onto the cot next to Tucker. ]

It's different from the memory unit. Even when I was injured in there I knew it was all fake and that I could reset the scenario if I had to. [ And he tended to gloss over the unnecessary shit. Like eating. ] I feel like I'm... less than before is the big thing. I'm not thinking at AI speeds.

Yeah, but at least a roomba is good at something. [And there it was, that look without the helmet, not just something made of code and numbers but actually had muscle, bone, skin. It was pretty much what he thought it would be, familiar and chastising and totally judgemental, which made him smirk a little.] I mean it cleans and if it's rolling by, you can set your drink on it.

[Except how would you get your drink back...? Minor detail. Whatever, no one cared. He watched Church sit down beside him, felt the cot shift with the added weight, and just-- fuck, it was really him, wasn't it? It was really this asshole back. Breathing. Not transparent and not in armor and not fucking dead.

Caboose was going to lose his mind. ]

Well, I'm not about to start apologizing that you can't reset us or this. [But if he could, would he reset it so he didn't come back? Or just the punch itself? Both? Was he pissed he was here?]

You're not less, though. [Palms found the bed and he leaned back on his arms, eyes looking up. This was getting dangerously close to actual emotions, and Tucker wasn't sure what to do with it.] I mean, your bullshit about synthetic life is pretty much gone, but there are other pretty good perks, too. Like looking at porn and not worrying about if we're going to get a virus from it. That sorta thing.