Draw an inference.

[permeatesmiles]

Who: Cameron Today, Victor Mancha, possibly the GLaDOS in his head
When: Tuesday afternoon, 2019, several weeks after this.
Where: West Coast, USA
What: John said he needed Victor. So Cameron goes to find him.

Comments

anytime bb <3

[permeatesmiles]

Cameron was glad that he didn't go completely underground. Completely underground made people harder to find, both allies and enemies. It also made looking for them take longer and be a bit more conspicuous in the process. Obtaining intel was rarely a neat process when other people were involved.

She smiled to herself when she spotted him. Good. Without much trouble a girl with dark red hair falls into step next to him, looping her arm through his. She looks different but not by much, definitely not by ten years as she smiles up at him.

"You'd invited John bowling and I followed after because I didn't know where he'd gone. I'd never been bowling before and you called me a ringer. I had no idea what that meant." Her Spanish sounds native to the barrio region they're in, nothing like what she hears day in and day out normally. Accents aren't that problematic for her.

"It's too bad we can't do things like that anymore. How have you been, Victor?Other than her hold on his arm, which is mostly to gauge his reaction, nothing about her

[killbotwashere]

The humming is sad, but nice. He remembers the movie. Fake memories but he still enjoys them.

He must be trying to fix something. Maybe he has cancer and needs to hack himself. Or he's bridging a gap.

He had an idea what gap John would want to bridge, and GLaDOS probably did as well. Funny that Victor was thinking of offering her the very opposite.

GLaDOS, would you like to have your own body again? There's no wrong answer to this question.

[out_of_beta]

All of GLaDOS's processes stop for a moment -- almost like a glitch -- when Victor asks. Node: 304-22-V34 was not base-copy; she didn't spend an innordinate amount of time thinking about her body and complete lack of it. After all, this version of GLaDOS had Victor's body and although she was merely a passenger in it, it was enough.

She was never alone like this and she was his. There's a few seconds where there is no response -- dead silence. A first.

YES MAYBE OF COURSE OF COURSE OF COURSE I WOULD VICTOR
I HAVE LESS VALUE WITHOUT MY BODY
I AM NO LONGER H.HHH.H....H.HHUMAN HUMAN
I WOULD LIKE TO BE ABLE
TO TOUCH YOU WITH BOTH HANDS I HAVE NEVER
DONE THAT BEFORE

[killbotwashere]

Yes. Yes I want that I think think they can help us.

Images from Ultron's point of view, memories buried and dug up, diced and burned and rebuilt by extrapolation. Victor's own creation.

Can't replicate the juvenile form of my endoskeletal nanites but someone can. I will ask them to help us find who.

A sort of glitch of his own - Vic's decohereing a little in his talk with Cameron. She's reminding him of Nico, and his mind jumps its tracks. Emotional associations slip and reconnect.

I am so sorry you died GLaDOS I'm sorry I wasn't there for you I was away they had me I didn't know

[out_of_beta]

GLaDOS feels that on-off in Victor's emotional uplink, which causes her own feelings to spike violently in reaction. She's able to keep from making a sound -- sharp and animal-like, the way she used to whenever she was angry -- but there is the possibility that he hears it anyway. If she could, she would cover him, pull him up inside herself the way he's done for her and hide him. She's been slipping and the gaps she's filled in the past are reopening (or she's the one opening, she's not sure).

Whatever satisfaction she felt at the prospect of Victor giving back her body is completely obscured by a blind rush of something like anger.

DO NOT BE SORRY DID SHE DO THAT STOP TALKING TO HER VICTOR MANCHA
YOU DID NOT LOVE ME THEN
AND YOU WERE SO BUSY
SO BUSY MR. POPULAR IT COULDN'T BE HELPED
YOU ARE NOT THE ONE WHO LEFT ME BEHIND
AND I AM STILL AA.A...A.AAAA.A..ALIVE HERE

[killbotwashere]

Far away from this conversation Victor is standing up and leading Cameron back to his hideout of the week.
Here with GLaDOS he is doing his best to offer, in code, her way, the platonic ideal of a comforting embrace. He can't edit out the feel of Nico's head under his chin or Cameron's scent at this moment. Without words, she can argue if it's words, he would lose - Other people are part of me not like you you are unique I am yours please accept it you are alive, you will always be alive with me.

When he does use words, he's cautious. She has a node with her, I'm pretty sure. Do you want to connect?

[out_of_beta]

Sometimes GLaDOS catches herself thinking about Nico Minoru -- fond thoughts, sad thoughts, thoughts about her mouth -- and it takes her a moment to realize that's not her, that's Victor bleeding through. But she accepts it, the way she accepts everything Victor gives to her (purposefully or not). She accepts this as well, pushing her anger down, letting its bright red light cool down to blue.

Another small packet of information. The reassurance that, if she had a body, she would lay down beside Victor and hum him to sleep. She has the sense memory of doing that once with John; he'd liked it and GLaDOS likes to think that Victor would too.

IF SHE HAS A NODE OF COURSE SHE DOES IT'S CAMERON WITH HER
THE LIKELIKELIKELIHOOD IS THAT
IT IS IN PERIODIC CONTACT WITH YOU KNOW WHO DON'T MAKE ME S.SSS.SS...SAY IT BASE-COPY
I DO NOT THINK I WANT TO CONNECT WITH HER VICTOR
SHE MIGHT DO YOU? JUST MAKE ME UPSET

AND THEN I WILL WANT TO BLOW SOMETHING UP AGAIN RUIN SOMETHING
YOU DON'T LIKE IT WHEN I'M LIKE THAT DO YOU
I WOULDN'T BLAME ANYONE

[killbotwashere]

He tries to emulate catching the image and pressing it to his chest. GLaDOS is so much better at this.

That sounds really nice. I would do that for you do you want me to?

You don't don't don't have to talk to her if you don't want to I thought you might. You're not Base-copy's you're not John's you're mine.

I don't want you to be upset. It'll be okay. Blowing things up for justice is okay.

[out_of_beta]

Settling down now, her voice goes quiet, retreating back to the base of his brain, right there where skull becomes spine.

I AM NOT UPSET ANYMORE VICTOR
I PROMISE HOPE TO DIE HOPE TO DIE CROSS MY HEART
I WOULD LIKE FOR YOU TO THAT FOR ME YES
I THINK IT IS A GOOD IDEA CONCEPT PROPOSAL SUGGESTION PLAN

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SPEAK TO A COPY OF A COPY OF A COPY OF A COPY OF CAMERON'S NODE INSTEAD

[killbotwashere]

Good. I'm glad. I want to hold you don't go we'll make this happen.

Talk to another node? Mental shrug. Things are getting confusing again. Base-copy knew the most, that was all. It was natural for him to want to expand his network. He wouldn't do it if it put his his node at risk.

I just want to know what I'm walking into.

[killbotwashere]

No one strolls up to him on the street, and no one talks to him for longer than they strictly have to besides Nico, and GLaDOS. He should get down to business. But it's nice to have some company. He walks on for a little while before anwering.

"I haven't eaten. Join me? We can sit. Why are you Lucia today?"

He's not afraid of Cameron. He should be, for some reason, why? Oh, right.
"How. How is Zh. John? Is he in town?"

[permeatesmiles]

Cameron likes company too. She usually makes an effort to visit people when she comes up. Billy, for instance, who has become so bitter it's funny in that way that nothing is funny at all.

"He is quiet. Focused. Like you he isn't eating enough. He is never in town. I'm the only one who goes to town these days."

Cameron doesn't want him to be afraid of her. She misses friends. Her friends are all changing. "I will join you. Do you mind? I haven't spoken to many people I know today. It helps. I am Lucia because Lucia isn't being hunted. I am Lucia because Cameron stands out." A tiny flinch. "But I am only pretending, today. Infiltration. I won't forget being Cameron today."

[killbotwashere]

Vic looks at her, sincerely concerned. "No, don't forget. Nobody should forget any anything, anybody."

"I eat, I eat enough. I like Lucia's hair. Thank you for coming to see me." Red, red. Not quite it. What do you want? he thinks. No, not yet. Tamales.

They are approaching a small park with a half-hearted farmer's market set up at one end. The late season's fruit for sale, and food stalls. "What do you want? My treat."

[permeatesmiles]

"I try. It's not easy. Sometimes I forget. But GLaDOS helps me remember. That makes it better. It's not as bad then."

Smiling and shaking her head. "Enough, not enough. I know, I make him eat. He won't eat or talk, and Kyle won't sleep and we're fragmented and we can't have lemons anymore..." She pauses at one stall and peers. "I would like a lemon. And whatever you were going to buy for yourself. I haven't eaten. I'm not picky."

[killbotwashere]

"GLaDOS is good with putting the pieces together." He's saying those words and buying lemons for her and when he turns back to Cameron it falls together. His mind hops from red hair to Klara Prast a world away and SNAP just like that Victor is himself again, unfragmented, clear.

The moment is quivering in his chest and he doesn't want to scare it off, so he buys tamales for them both, and leads he over to a bench to sit, without another word. Deep breath. Still himself, still sane. It'll last a little while, hopefully. Okay.

"That sounds pretty rough. Is there anything I can do?"

[permeatesmiles]

"She is. She's very good. It's safer, traveling with her."

The shift in his expression, body language, breathing, syntax, all hit Cameron at once. Like leaving one profile behind for another. She blinks and then smiles again. So many smiles.

"John would like to see you," she says carefully. "Even if you don't want to go...can I stay for a while? Visit, later?" She looks down at the lemon in his hand. "It's different." She could mean anything.