application for Amanda Graystone (Caprica)

[amandagraystone]

((WARNING: spoilers for all existing episodes of Caprica))

Land on your feet, in a crouch. Amazed. Hands outflung as if in flight. Fold your arms, unfold them, stretch one out before you and study your hand in amazement. Same scarred wrist. Run a finger over the keloid ridge. Reach up to feel your face. The back of your head. Fingers

Comments

[future_tinman]

"They can give you food here." Marcus sounded hesitant, like he was unused to talking to strangers and expected Amanda to bite him.

He was a strange juxtaposition of clean and dirty. He wore a clean white oxford and gray slacks, courtesy of whatever being who decided that poor students shouldn't have to go naked. But his face was scruffy, and his right hand was calloused and had dirt permanently caked under the nails, like a mechanic. His left hand was smooth metal.

"You don't have to take it if you don't want it. Or if you can't have it."

[amandagraystone]

"Yeah?" Amanda's eyes went first to the face; she looked everyone straight in the eye. "I think," she said, quietly, "that it's possible to eat, if I wanted to. Thank you."

Only then did her glance catch the metal hand at his side. Naturally, her first thought was of the U87 prototype. She blinked hard.

[future_tinman]

"Wasn't sure." He caught her looking, but there wasn't much he could do besides walk around with his hands in his pockets. "I don't think anybody cares about the answers."

[amandagraystone]

"The person who wrote the questions cares about the answers," Amanda muttered. But whoever was behind this avatar wasn't to blame for that. Wasn't to blame for the U87 either. She raised her eyes back to his face. "They're bad questions," she said. Her voice was soft. "What about you? What do you care about?"

[future_tinman]

"I think person's maybe too nice of a word," he said with a snort. "I heard it only cares about glitter."

He broke eye contact and stared at the floor. "I care about staying alive. Haven't found much else to do here."

[amandagraystone]

"You call this life?" Amanda was honestly incredulous.

[future_tinman]

"I gotta call it something." Marcus looked irritated, not at her, but at situation in general, having to describe something that still gave him a headache. He was alive through artificial means, but when it came down to it, his body could be jumped like a car battery. Was that really living?

"I'm not a machine, but I'm not a person, either. And since dying doesn't seem to be working out, I don't know what else to do. Nothing's the same here. If you had something you used to care about, it's probably not out there anymore."

[amandagraystone]

The simple oppositions mapped out in a way Amanda found readily intelligible. There was in here and out there. Only while she knew what would bring her here -- or, more aptly, create her here, from vids and medical records and whatever other specs might be extant -- she was under the impression Daniel hadn't created a great many avatars like this. Zoë, he'd admitted to making, and now there was herself.

Other people, she thought, could take off their holobands and leave virtual space at will. If these were other people, and not artifacts of a closed simulation under development. (A fantasy-castle game?)

"Are you -- stuck? In here?"

[future_tinman]

That was a hard question to answer. "You can leave the room once the Hat lets you out," he said, "and you can go wherever you want in or out of the castle." It didn't sound like being stuck.

"If this isn't the when and where you came from, then you're kinda fucked, though."

[amandagraystone]

Amanda gave a derisive little snort of laughter, very much at herself. "If you mean frakked, I don't think it matters much the when or the where. It's good to know I'm not limited to this room, anyway --" She turned around, full 360, to get a panoramic view. "It could get very, very dull."

[future_tinman]

"It's pretty boring out there, too." For a guy who did most of his work with his hands and never cracked a book in his life, Hogwarts was a dull place to be.

"I don't know what you call frakked, but if it's this," he made an unmistakable universal hip thrust, "then yeah, it's the same thing. You got other nifty words we don't got here?"

[amandagraystone]

(( How could a robot ever be bored? They are the most awesome))

Salty language didn't bother her. She could be considered ... outspoken. Earthy, someone'd once said. Fiery, Daniel would have said (had said as much, you are the light and fire of my life, ballpoint lettered under the triter pre-printed sentiments of the holiday card). The hip-thrusting illustration didn't bother her, either -- made her roll her eyes a little, but in amusement, not disdain.

"Someone had a problem with 'Kobol' a few minutes ago. Think that's a nifty word? Other than that ... I don't know." She was fidgeting, picking at her fingernails, for lack of a cigarette to occupy her hands. "'Frak' covers it all, doesn't it? It's a versatile word. It lends itself to compounds. 'Cheap motherfrakker', 'got frakked on that deal', 'all frakked-up on amp'. To spice up language, add a dash of frak." The last sentence she delivered straight, like an advertisement.

[future_tinman]

'Kobol' sounded like a brand of ballpoint pen.

It sounded like the rules that applied to 'fuck' also worked for 'frak' as well. "Yeah, like he's a fucking fuck who fucks," Marcus said. Adjective, noun, and verb all in one sentence. "Between 'fuck' and 'shit', I think you've got most things covered."

[amandagraystone]

He got it. She nodded. "Universal language."

[future_tinman]

"Damn straight." Nobody could ever accuse Marcus of being eloquent. "So you're supposed to go to a dorm that matches your personality or the color of your eyes or whatever. It's crap. There's a dorm with a bar, a dorm with a gym, one with a convenience store, and the cold-ass one in the basement. Which one do you want?"

[amandagraystone]

Amanda knew people could 'eat' in V-World, and one of the first licensers of holoband technology was the porn industry, so it made a kind of sense that people could also work out in V-World. Workout for aesthetic purposes would be pointless, unless you had some kind of program that made your avatar change incrementally as a response to the virtual workout activity, Amanda guessed

(clearly, Graystone Industries never invented Wii Fit)

but physical appearance wasn't the only reason to work out. There was the endorphin high to be had, and the recreational appeal of sport besides. She was well aware that not everyone had the luxury of a personal tennis court on the grounds of their home. Space was at a premium for most urban dwellers. Gym membership was probably more like that seedy place Daniel still liked to go when he felt like boxing.

"The one with the gym, or the one with the bar. I like both."