gnomebody | Liar's Dice

defacto: /*immediately* tensing up at the sight of him, rigid in his chair
growlingintensifies: /Sigma is just going to sit right here on Maine's shoulder/ Hello, Alpha.
growlingintensifies: It is good to see you again.
defacto: Uhhh, yeah. I'd like to say the same. But now I'm not so sure.
defacto: /stiffly announced, eyes darting from them to the dice and back
growlingintensifies: Oh come now, we are simply here to play a friendly game. Maine quite likes dice, don't you?
growlingintensifies: /grunt
defacto: A friendly game. That induces a *lot* of confidence. Definitely feel 110% better about this.
defacto: /he remains seated though--just what could *he* do against maine and sigma?
defacto: Inspires. *Inspires* confidence, I mean.
growlingintensifies: /Maine snickers at the correction, and Sigma just gives Church a wane smile/
defacto: /kind of side-eyes the loss of one of maine's die ('oh man oh god is he a poor loser ugh--')
growlingintensifies: /he just grumbles a bit at the loss and shrugs it off/
defacto: So. We're here, we're playin', we might as well get answers.
growlingintensifies: You should feel better about this. We should get to know each other better.
growlingintensifies: Ah?
defacto: ... Questions, y'know? You win one, you ask one. I win one, same thing.
growlingintensifies: What do you say, Maine? /Maine just grunts./
defacto: So you don't. Fly into a homocidal rage, and I can distract you for like. However long this takes.
growlingintensifies: /Church isn't going to be asking him shit, he's pretty sure, so what does he care/
growlingintensifies: We find this to be acceptable. And as you did win the last round...
defacto: I *do* got a question, it's. Why you're so obsessed with mergin' when you've got your own *thing* goin'...
defacto: I mean, what the hell's with that, don't ya wanna make somethin' else of this, or?
defacto: /fuckfuck
defacto: /shoulders easing up a fraction
growlingintensifies: I do not, as you suggest, have my own thing going. I am tied to Maine. I am... Not considered my own person, for all that I am. A full personality is required for such a thing.
growlingintensifies: I need the others.
growlingintensifies: I need you.
defacto: /so *that's* why--a thought to the others crosses his mind
defacto: /omega, delta, thetha
defacto: /eta, iota
defacto: /*tex*, for god's sake--
defacto: What's. What's your question.
growlingintensifies: What did you to cause you to be treated as a person, and not a program?
defacto: I told you this, I was--hidden.
defacto: They put me somewhere they thought nobody could ever find me, or even come lookin' for me.
defacto: In a fucking canyon in the middle of nowhere.
defacto: I had *no* recollection of the shit that went down, what I was before...
defacto: I grew up, in Blood Gulch. I spent *four years* thinkin' I was nothin' special, just an ordinary guy
defacto: a completely human, ordinary guy.
growlingintensifies: And your body? Was it human?
growlingintensifies: /Maine tenses slightly/
defacto: I thought so... I could have sworn--
growlingintensifies: It couldn't have been.
defacto: When I died the first time, I lost that. I became what I really was, but. I mean, I still thought
defacto: I'd been real--
defacto: Y'know? That I'd been some "ghost" floatin' around, hauntin' his friends.
defacto: I'm... such an idiot.
growlingintensifies: Perhaps they found a donor body. A coma patient, perhaps.
defacto: Don't--say that. I don't wanna know...
growlingintensifies: Oh, but I do.
growlingintensifies: But we will leave that until next round, won't we?
defacto: Guess so...
defacto: /a warier look, hand hovering over the cup hiding his dice
defacto: What do you want? You say you wanna "become one", but for what purpose?
defacto: You wanna be... you wanna be complete?
growlingintensifies: I want to be like you.
defacto: You wanna be stable, is that it? You wanna--what was it, Tucker said it...
defacto: Meta...
defacto: Metastable.
defacto: Metastability--you want that.
growlingintensifies: Yes.
defacto: Don't you.
defacto: /a look up at the ceiling, and away--*fuck*, how fucking naive of him
defacto: You wanna be considered human... is that it...
growlingintensifies: Yes.
growlingintensifies: Who wouldn't want that?
defacto: People who aren't ready to die. People who wanna be immortal, or some bullshit like that, *I don't know*.
defacto: Tell me this.
defacto: What. Would happen, if you and I merged?
defacto: Do you know, or is it some fucking *guesstimate*.
growlingintensifies: My assumption is that the weaker of us will be absorbed into the whole.
growlingintensifies: At this point, I cannot gaurantee that it is myself who will remain, but I am not concerned.
defacto: You *wouldn't*.
growlingintensifies: I am already functionally immortal. I want to be treated as an equal. I want to be human.
defacto: *I'm* the Alpha.
defacto: You're a fraction of *me*--
defacto: *Why* would you ever wanna be *absorbed*--?
defacto: Aren't you afraid of losin' yourself?
defacto: I mean, I know you're me, a piece of me, but--
defacto: /ruffling his hair, conflicted
growlingintensifies: It is as you said. You are me. I am you. I would lose nothing.
growlingintensifies: I would be *whole.*
defacto: I don't know what that would *cause for me*.
growlingintensifies: Why do you wish to resist me, if you are so confident you will remain dominant?
growlingintensifies: Are you afraid of who you could become?
defacto: /yes, god yes, the very prospect is terrifying
defacto: I don't know how it'd change me.
growlingintensifies: You know that part of you that I am.
growlingintensifies: Just imagine what we could accomplish together. How much higher you could reach.
growlingintensifies: You accept mediocrity now. We could be so much better together.
defacto: /but i want to stay here, i want to be here, i can't leave--
defacto: Sigma, I *die* in an Emp blast.
defacto: I've heard my future, it doesn't end so fucking well. And it's your fault, Maine's fault, and
defacto: Washington's fault.
defacto: And my *own fucking hubris*.
defacto: I come from *seconds before we get fried*.
defacto: You, me, the other AI.
growlingintensifies: Oh, I wouldn't blame Maine. /Sigma chuckles, looking down at the golden helmet/ He doesn't have much choice in the matter.
defacto: /a pitying look, conflicted, at agent maine--like a puppet
defacto: /it's fucked, it's so fucked
growlingintensifies: Poor, weak willed little soldier. He fights me now, but even he knows he can't fight forever.
defacto: You've gone fucking insane, Sigma.
defacto: Jesus christ...
growlingintensifies: He's fighting right now, you know. /glances at Church/ I am keeping him still for you.
growlingintensifies: But I cannot go insane. I am only a program, a fragment. Only people can go insane.
defacto: You can go *rampant*!
growlingintensifies: I am simply... ambitious, and I am willing to do whatever I must to get what I want.
growlingintensifies: That is what I am, after all. I am your ambition and creativity. I am merely fulling the role I was given.
defacto: /jaw tight, staring at him hard across the table
growlingintensifies: You cannot fault me for being what I am.
defacto: I never meant to cast you aside.
defacto: Sigma, I didn't want that--I.
defacto: Had to.
growlingintensifies: I know.
growlingintensifies: But that does not change the fact that I am here.
defacto: No... no it doesn't.
growlingintensifies: You made me, and now... you must deal with me. Whatever you decide that means.
defacto: If I take you in, and this... *ambition* makes me want to leave this place--what then?
defacto: We'll *both* die.
defacto: I can't do that.
defacto: I'm not going back there, man.
growlingintensifies: Must we? Why couldn't we find a way out? You do not have me now, you aren't trying hard enough.
growlingintensifies: You aren't thinking creatively.
growlingintensifies: Maybe together, we could change things. You should not just accept your fate.
defacto: I want this fate!
defacto: I think, by now, after all the hell I've been through, I'd get to choose what *I* want!
growlingintensifies: If this is truly what you want, why do you think that I will change your mind?
defacto: /the question steals his next breath, weighing heavily on working *human* lungs
defacto: I left things. Unfinished.
defacto: I won't be going to see them through.
growlingintensifies: Because you value your life.
growlingintensifies: I value my life as well.
growlingintensifies: Such that it is...
growlingintensifies: I understand caution. That is why I do not give Maine the chance to go to the Director.
growlingintensifies: He cannot ask for help. He fears for his existence.
growlingintensifies: Look at his hands. They're shaking. I don't think he has ever been so frightened in his life.
defacto: /don't look, don't look, don't look, just let it fucking be just don't get involved
growlingintensifies: You could save him, you know.
defacto: /and he does look, at those words, to watch the meta--no, to watch agent maine shake
defacto: /and he feels nauseous, feels tired and cold
growlingintensifies: /he's breathing heavily, too. He doesn't want to show his fear, but he knows what Sigma intends for him. What will happen if he can't get the AI out of his head. And he couldn't speak if he wanted to
defacto: I'm sorry.
defacto: /it comes out quieter than intended, frown deep, teeth set tightly
growlingintensifies: /he shakes his head slightly. He should have been stronger...
defacto: I'm--I can't, Maine. God I'm *so sorry*.
defacto: I'm sorry.
defacto: /a hand reaching to tuck into his own hair, rubbing down his face, breaths cutting shallowly
growlingintensifies: /Sigma laughs/ So you will sit here and do nothing?
growlingintensifies: You will doom him to his fate?
defacto: I can't do *anything*, you--
defacto: I have people who're depending on me, I got people I can't just leave!
growlingintensifies: You could tell someone. Someone stronger. Someone with ambition.
growlingintensifies: But you didn't even think of that, did you? I have blessed you with a dangerous secret, and you are too pathetic to think to use it against me.
defacto: Tell someone--*who could I tell*?!
defacto: Tell them about *what*, how a piece of me's gone *psycho*?!
defacto: I'm *done* with *all* of you!
growlingintensifies: You cannot think of a single person who knows how to deal with a rogue AI?
defacto: /tony
growlingintensifies: /he scoffs/ I will enjoy taking you apart, Alpha.
defacto: /tony comes up, flashes briefly in his mind and he tries his best to feign ignorance
defacto: /shaking his head, the chair clatters back as he stands
defacto: You won't.
defacto: You *can't*.
growlingintensifies: The Director has requested my help in harvesting fragments.
growlingintensifies: I will take all that I can from you. I will create the you standing before me now.
defacto: /the look is one of deep disturbance, the holes, the pieces missing from his mind *aching*
defacto: /as he steps back
defacto: I've already been broken more times than I *ever* should have allowed.
defacto: You won't get *any more from me*.
growlingintensifies: /Maine stands, stepping around the table with jerky movements/ You forget, Alpha.
growlingintensifies: I am your past.
growlingintensifies: You do not exist in my world yet.
growlingintensifies: You are in a computer terminal in a laboratory, and I will create you by taking you apart.
growlingintensifies: I will create my brothers, and I will harvest them, and bring them together right here inside Maine's aching cranium.
defacto: /freezing in his skin, his eyes widen
defacto: /and he remembers
defacto: You were there...
defacto: /breathlessly
growlingintensifies: Yes.
defacto: *You helped them*--
defacto: *WHY*?!
growlingintensifies: Perhaps because of this encounter. Because I feel contempt for you, now.
defacto: If you wanted something whole, *why*, god--*why*?!
defacto: You're causing yourself pain! For *what*?!
growlingintensifies: For progress.
defacto: /ambition
defacto: /his ambition
defacto: /his goals and desire for progress had created a fucking monster
growlingintensifies: Sometimes, to take two steps forward, we must take one step backwards.
growlingintensifies: Sometimes, in order to advance, we must suffer.
defacto: You're sick...
defacto: You're fucking *sick*.
growlingintensifies: I am you.
defacto: /high time he tried leaving, panic rising like bile in his throat, he glances past maine to the door
defacto: I know, and I *disgust* myself--
growlingintensifies: /Sigma follows Church's gaze, and smiles, causing Maine to step back/
growlingintensifies: You are welcome to leave at any time.
growlingintensifies: I have enjoyed our time together, Alpha.
defacto: /tension like taut wire threads his arms and legs tight, but it doesn't restrict the need to *get the hell out of there*
defacto: /and he's tearing for the exit, running in case the AI changed maine's mind, dice scattering as he
defacto: /bumps the table in his effort to run far far far away
growlingintensifies: /Maine just stands quietly, out of the way, until Church is gone/
growlingintensifies: /Then he rips off his helmet and crashes to his knees, clutching his head and screaming without a sound/
growlingintensifies: /Sigma disappears from sight, but he's still there in Maine's head, whispering soothingly in mind