[There's guilt there, she should have been keeping an eye out. She'd let herself get sidetracked by the coaster park and hadn't been keeping up with things.]
No ... [The words die. Hearing this, she can't speak. She realizes she doesn't understand fully the workings of their world, but she knew enough that the idea alone was frightening. And after everything that Washington had already been through ... how could she have been so stupid to let everything else get in the way?]
What are you going to do? You're not going through with the original plan, are you?
Washington, I'm -- [Sorry? That's hardly going to cut it. Tinny footsteps as she paces for a moment, and then a grunt and clatter as she chucks her spear at the door. DAMMIT, things were so much simpler on her world]
I don't know. I'm going to have to do something, and I don't have many options. I need to get them out of there and isolated.
I couldn't even protect myself. And York tried, but the castle interfered partway through the damn loss. And I didn't tell him, but it wasn't the castle that triggered the beacon that brought the Meta to me. I did it myself.
Not many options. I'm going to have to try to lure the worst of them to jump into my armor. [Trying and failing to hide his fear.] Omega.
I panicked when I realized I was alone and not where York had been keeping me. A recovery beacon is supposed to go off when an AI is in the direst danger. I didn't exactly have the most control over my functions.
[She remembers talking about this plan, and stubbornly refuses to believe it's all they've got. Hearing the fear in his voice just makes her reply that much more passionate.] There's got to be another way. Any other way.
I'm sorry that had to happen to you. [She's also sorry she wasn't there to help at all.]
No other way that I'm willing to deal with the consequences of. There's a number of innocent AIs and a human mind to think of. They don't deserve to risk getting destroyed because I'm scared.
It's not your fault. Don't apologize. I brought it on myself. And I let them win as it was.
[An aggravated sound,] All these residents from all these worlds and this is all we have?
[She shuts up for a moment. It's not that she thinks it's her fault, but the fact that she did absolutely nothing and didn't even know it was happening is going to weigh on her, no matter what he says.] You -- let them win? Why?
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What happened to you?
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[There's guilt there, she should have been keeping an eye out. She'd let herself get sidetracked by the coaster park and hadn't been keeping up with things.]
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[There's a pause.] I was an AI unit, 7. They forced me into implantation to join them in there.
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No ... [The words die. Hearing this, she can't speak. She realizes she doesn't understand fully the workings of their world, but she knew enough that the idea alone was frightening. And after everything that Washington had already been through ... how could she have been so stupid to let everything else get in the way?]
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I know now way too much about what it's like in there for my own comfort. They tried to break me like they did him.
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Washington, I'm -- [Sorry? That's hardly going to cut it. Tinny footsteps as she paces for a moment, and then a grunt and clatter as she chucks her spear at the door. DAMMIT, things were so much simpler on her world]
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I couldn't even protect myself. And York tried, but the castle interfered partway through the damn loss. And I didn't tell him, but it wasn't the castle that triggered the beacon that brought the Meta to me. I did it myself.
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[She doesn't reply for a moment, caught between what he's saying and the fact that he's confiding in her something he didn't tell York.] Why?
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I panicked when I realized I was alone and not where York had been keeping me. A recovery beacon is supposed to go off when an AI is in the direst danger. I didn't exactly have the most control over my functions.
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I'm sorry that had to happen to you. [She's also sorry she wasn't there to help at all.]
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It's not your fault. Don't apologize. I brought it on myself. And I let them win as it was.
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[She shuts up for a moment. It's not that she thinks it's her fault, but the fact that she did absolutely nothing and didn't even know it was happening is going to weigh on her, no matter what he says.] You -- let them win? Why?
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