02 ✍ This is the part where we apologize for others [text only]
I want to thank everyone who spoke with Topher yesterday. Specifically Alphonse. Sorry about that. For those of you who missed it or don't know who I am talking about, well, then it isn't worth concerning yourselves with I suppose but for those that did I think I should clarify a few things.
- Neither myself nor Claire Saunders are impersonators or ( Read more... )
[Does not compute!]
Is she still an active? [thinking face is ON] Hey if we're talking about alternative universes here, maybe she isn't! For all we know I'm the doll and she's the real girl. At any rate no I'm not about to tell her that cause it sure as hell did NOT work out the last time. But what if she glitches? We can't do anything without an imprint chair. We're both flying high without any sort of safety net. She deserves to know the truth, Bennett. I just...don't know how to tell her without it going horribly horribly wrong like it did the last time.
[Sigh] No. You fixed it. You d-died fixing it. It just put the casing back on and finished what you started. It worked. Echo is...greater than Caroline. It's something to do with her biology, something on the cellular level we never noticed because we were never looking for it. Rossum--Boyd--he knew. It was all a lie to begin with. Rossum manipulated Caroline and then later us.
[Comparing him to Einstein? Oh you beautiful creature you.] I really like you.
[Er...wait. BACK UP THE TRAIN]
Who's the other person in the--YOU?
Reply
Well, first you have to figure out why it went wrong last time. Did someone tell her or did she find out? Was it traumatic? A permanent imprint is going to become self aware at some point and when it does? Self-preservation kicks in. We have to help her. We don't have a chair, that's true but maybe? We can build one. Or a remote tech. We're not exactly lost here. But you can't tell her the way things are now, you two barely get along. [Uncrossing her arm.] We'll figure it out. Promise.
Wait, wait. Boyd was Rossum? A cellular level. Is it something you know how to look for? Maybe... [Maybe that's what they could do for Claire, eventually. More things to think about. Bennett looks away, processing all of that, smiling a little when Topher says he likes her.]
I really like you too.
[Oh. Right. Did Adelle not tell him? Guess not.]
Me. With Caroline.
Reply
Most men are stupid, cheating, blind jerks. Being a genius is a must for me.
[In fact he's totally turned on by the fact that she may be smarter than him. So hot.]
Ah yeah I would say it was very traumatic. [He winces] Alpha told her. Then she confirmed by hacking into my computer. Don't--ask why I programed her with those skills ok? Long story.
[wahh he doesn't like this idea]
While the mad scientist in me cackles with delight at the idea of trying to rebuild the tech here, the newer shiner half that took down Rossum needs to remind you that we shouldn't be bringing that tech to this place. Think about it--their scientists are greater than us! They've destroyed multiple worlds! If they got the tech--if they don't already know about it--it could end the universe! I don't want that on my conscious, do you?
These things they're so...complicated. I just wanna go back to my lab and eat starches and play x-box till 5 in the morning like I used to.
[yay! She likes him! He smiles at that--then gets a confused look on his face]
I don't understand--I thought Caroline was the one who hurt your arm.
Reply
Considering what I've seen of the clientele at the House...yes. I'd have to agree. Too many want to be knights-in-shining-armor.
I don't want to end the universe but I don't want to leave Claire with the concept that who she is could be deleted much faster and easier than the rest of us. So we do genetic coding. We don't diagram our work, and we destroy it when we're done. Sitting back and saying sorry, the risk is too great to help you is not a viable option for me.
[She doesn't know what to say to his desire to go home. Not after what he's said already.]
I'd rather be home. But. You're here.
[Which means she'll make THIS home.]
She...broke into a Rossum executive's office and found a file on me three years ago. It might have been Dewitt's office, actually, now that I think about it. Because of the material in the file, she went to Tuscon and became my friend. My roommate. So when I found out about it, I demanded that she let me help her.
And then she abandoned me.
Reply
Yes! Thank you. I swear if I had to create an imprint for that one more time I probably would have gone insane.
[He raises a hand.]
Problem? We can't create a vaccine against imprinting without Caroline slash Echo's DNA. Also we don't have the original Saunders program here so not only would we have to create the imprint tech first, we would then have to suck the imprint out and figure out a way to prevent degrading and then feed it back into her. Also BTW, have you thought about the other implications of this? If we did figure out a way to make her Saunders permanently, the person Whiskey was would never come back. Ever. We're talking about sacrificing one person for a fictional one. I'm not saying lets sit back and relax in our little End of the World lab but I do think it's mega complicated and makes me almost long for the days when Dewitt was around to bark orders.
[well in his defense he did say he wanted his starches and xbox, not a world where she is dead.]
You're here too. That makes me want to stay.
[And it's true to a point. The world he left doesn't have much appeal if you get past the superficial things like electricity, lights and Frito-Lay. Also he's probably a criminal by now.]
That...no way. You were a terrorist too? But--how did you not become a doll like Caroline? Why would she leave you? I mean I don't know much about the woman but that doesn't...feel right.
[Dangerous territory Topher.]
Reply
You would think with that much money, they could afford a better and more imaginative fantasies.
[Then again, that was the nature of the business, wasn't it? Fantasy. Some interesting, most of them ridiculously predictable and pedantic. Bennett cannot count how many hapless girls and dominatrices she's programmed.]
Valid worry. However it kind of sounds like she made that choice, at least in your world, because when you said she left you didn't say her contract ended and everyone was surprised to see her when I met her. She knew she was a doll but she still introduced herself as Saunders.
The whole 'erasing a real person for a fake one' argument was rendered invalid whenever your superior authorized for Saunders to become a permanent imprint. Granted, I'm assuming she was one, since all the key phrases she would have heard all day would have set her into a doll-state otherwise and it wouldn't do any good for the physician to need to be in the chair every few months.
It is complicated. It's always complicated. Fake personality or not, her brain believes she's real. We know that.
[Starches and Xbox actually sound pretty decent at the moment, though Bennett obviously isn't very good at video games.]
Not to start. [Bennett's expression gets angry and then closed off by turns.] I don't really want to talk about this, Topher.
Reply
[He could happily live the rest of his life and never program another woman to be into covering herself with bread and pretending to be dead shrimp. HAPPILY.]
She...I honestly don't know anymore. [He sighs] Yes she left willingly. It was because she found out she was a doll and she couldn't live with it. Or with me. She blamed me.
[The sad thing was? He didn't blame her either.]
None of our normal key phrases work on her no. I won't use her sleeper codes either--I can't be sure they won't backfire and without my tech that's too dangerous.
Yes it does and ok fine I see your point.
[He blinks in confusion for a second. Then his eyes grow sad and he nods.]
Then we wont.
[It goes both ways. He doesn't want to talk about it either. Instead he holds out his hand--he just wants to hold her. Keep her safe. Keep them both safe.]
We're ok Bennett.
Reply
[She can guess, Topher, really, and it wouldn't be that far off the mark. Bennett makes a face.]
I'm glad you see my point. [Which means she won't harp on and on and on about it. If he sees her point, then he knows they can't just sit on it forever. Eventually they'll have to deal with it. Do something or at least plan.
But that doesn't have to be right this moment.]
I - [She looks at his hand and looks at him. It should be simple, right? Letting someone in. Of course it isn't, but it should be.
So she takes his hand and puts her head on his shoulder.]
We're okay, Topher.
Reply
Leave a comment