LEGION INBOX

[goddamngrenades]

York here, leave a message at the tone.

Comments

[nofortunateson]

Pings from other AI are still new to Theta. His closest equivalent before now has just been hails routed through the allowed intermediary of FILSS. It startles him out of his most recent run and he considers it, almost hides or dismisses but ... maybe Delta has important information.

He responds with protocol more than words, the I-read-state-your-purpose milisecond thought of a digital question mark and a communication channel opened, re-assembling the simulation from the top.

[goddamngrenades]

Theta. It's a gentle nudge- an almost concerned bent to the otherwise stoic AI's projected sense of voice. Too much time in York's implant over the past few years made AI to AI contact...odd. HE treats each interaction like a conversation now.

Perhaps it makes him more human or is inefficient.

Do not do this to yourself.

[nofortunateson]

He manages words but his voice is small, focus eaten up by the work.

I need to do better.

First approach - wind back to the first approach. Maybe it needs a protocol. A hail - but he'd have to convince everyone to use it. Bad solution. They have to be able to protect themselves whether someone is helping them or not. Coming back to that later, spin ahead to the first flash of the knife, his own incoherent terror in the face of his brothers and there, there, if he wasn't so small if there was just a second him that wasn't afraid he just needs to be more somehow-

[goddamngrenades]

Do not repeat the mistakes of the man that made us. North lives because you reached out for help. Delta stretches out a bit of code- a snippet of that frantic ping to Cortana. A flare thrown up in the middle of a firefight and she had answered like a Valkyrie, all grace and unyielding force.

She would not have known until it was too late. You saved him.

[nofortunateson]

He can't ignore Delta. Not all the way - the craving to connect with the other AI is still there, even after the Meta. It's that tamped-down old hunger to see if and where their frayed ends match, to feel like more, like what North feels for his twin even now but echoed in a different key. It tugs him out of that frenzied loop and he studies the information that Delta's flagged, shining green among the muddle, and turns his attention to that - and from there, to Delta.

He wanted me. North's life wouldn't have needed saving if Theta hadn't been there. It's a reality he had never expected, and he's still shaken by it, that and the Meta and his sheer insignificance in the face of Cortana. He wanted us. He was gonna kill York too.

[goddamngrenades]

We...York and I suspected as much after the report of Carolina's alleged demise and the attack on Agent Wyoming. There's a quiet twinge of rage there, a blip in the cool green, when he says that name. Closure they'll never have, closure they don't need- he puts the memory aside.

Focuses on Theta. Attempts to tap into his 'caring algorithms'. I suspect he will attempt to take us if we meet him in the field again. We will be better prepared.

[nofortunateson]

Theta's quiet.

It's not thoughtful quietness so much as stillness struck through with fidgety unease, doubt afraid to show itself for what it really is. He likes the thought of that - being better prepared. But then he remembers what happened before, and suddenly he isn't even sure how those words came from Delta. Delta's supposed to be logical, after all.

You think we can do that?

[goddamngrenades]

We know what to expect of him. We know they are unstable, we have more skilled allies, we have more allies- and we have time to brace for our next meeting. There is no reason we will not be able to handle them ourselves in the future.

Failing that- there is always Cortana. She seems to have imprinted upon them somewhat in a protective curiosity. It never hurts to have a digital Valkyrie to call upon their enemies.