025 웃 VIDEO

[secretasshole]

[So.

So this is happening, and he's still not entirely certain he knows what he's doing. Not that - in his experience, anyway, because he's hated most of the wardens he's known here - that seems to be something that disqualifies you from being a warden to an inmate, rather than just a warden on board the ship, but it's still strange, to think he's responsible for someone else now.

This is a lot more complicated than making sure a few cryopods didn't fail during travel, or just doing a decent thing for someone you care for.

He decides to address something less bizarre first.]

I would like to thank everyone for the hospitality they showed towards Dr. Shaw during the flood. [Except for you, Chris, but David isn't one to hold a grudge over something like that when he likes you, anyway.

He knows some people would put the rest of this behind a filter, but there's no reason to pretend that he wouldn't do something like this.]

And if anyone has any information they'd like to share with me about Ms. Hidalgo, I would be interested to hear it.

[Private to Mira]

We should speak.

Comments

[mistconduct]

Yeeeah.

Sorry, David. My bad.

[secretasshole]

You weren't yourself. Technically speaking.

[private]

[exnihilo]

So we're speaking.

[This is not as belligerent as it could be. She's just - uncertain. She remembers the things she told Shaw, but none of them feel...reliable, set against her nervousness. Her memory never has been.]

[mistconduct]

Technically speaking, I totally was myself. Just an earlier prototype of myself.

[private]

[halftheman]

I know her.

We're-- seeing each other.

[ Now to see how David handles that. ]

[secretasshole]

So still not yourself.

[private]

[secretasshole]

[He's uncertain too, obviously, but it's easier to mask that when you're (in some ways) an emotionless robot.]

Would you prefer to continue in person, or over the network?

[private]

[secretasshole]

[He actually doesn't react at all. It's good to know, but he doesn't exactly know enough to be enthusiastic or furious about it. Not that he's necessarily capable of expressing those emotions in a "normal" way anyway.]

For how long?

[private]

[exnihilo]

...I'm not sure.

[In person is more immediate, more intimate. She contacted him like this partly in resistance to their newly-enforced closeness. But over the network is more like her conversations with her masters, voices from any device or terminal, ubiquitous and inconceivable.]

In person. I think. This time.

[private]

[halftheman]

Just about since she got here. [ He grins, adding: ] Love at first fight.

[private]

[secretasshole]

Where would like you meet?

[private]

[secretasshole]

Clever. [He doesn't actually think it's that clever.]

Is there anything you'd like me to know?

[mistconduct]

Not my fun-loving, cuddly present self, no.

[private]

[halftheman]

Doubt I know anything your file won't tell you.

[private]

[exnihilo]

Is your room okay?

[secretasshole]

I hope you managed to stay out of too much trouble. [He doubts it though, no offense little buddy.]

[private]

[secretasshole]

That's fine.

It's cabin 6-8.

[private]

[secretasshole]

It doesn't cover her time aboard the ship.

[private]

[halftheman]

Well, she hasn't murdered anyone I know of; so far you're doing good.

[mistconduct]

Me? Totally! I was a complete angel, are you kidding? Please, David.

[private]

[exnihilo]

[She thinks about procrastinating. When she realizes she's debating the merits of watering her cactus, she stops and just - goes. Knocks only once.]

[secretasshole]

I'm glad to hear it.

[You are 100% lying.]

[spam]

[secretasshole]

[David answers it promptly, and steps aside to let her enter.] Hello.

[His room is... odd. The decor's all sleek lines and pretty monochromatic. There's no bed or kitchen, but there's a bar that's now apparently fully stocked thanks to his graduation, a piano, several couches and chairs, along with a few tables and some oddly illuminated blueish columns. Apart from the floor to ceiling bookshelf on one side of the room, David's favorite part of his "cabin" is the giant viewscreen where a window should be. Right now, it's showing a mesa, something that probably exists somewhere in New Mexico back in Earth.

The android stands sort of uncomfortably besides the door, still really unsure about how to proceed, exactly.]

I've read your file.

[private]

[secretasshole]

Yes, I suppose the last hour has been quite successful. [He's not even saying it to be a bitch. Sometimes his sense of humor can be slightly less terrible!]

If it's any reassurance, I'm not interested in attempting to "split up" your relationship. Even if it was something I had reason to be especially concerned about, limiting free will isn't something I'm interested in pursuing.

[private]

[halftheman]

You couldn't if you wanted to. Barge doesn't work that way. But I'm glad you see it for what it is.