c.chun ➤ 001 ➤ text

[arkproject]

Hi, everyone. I'm Catherine!

I've been talking to a few people about our mission, and I've been thinking... Do we have any ideas for how to restructure the government that don't require full-scale fighting? Like, if we could gather evidence of the corruption and expose it to the public, through, say... cyber espionage? It would at least give us more information, even if we don't go that route.

Reconnaissance is a good first step!

I'm not an expert in this, but I figure one of you is. So I want your thoughts! Or if you have experience hacking and want to teach me. It sounds like it would be easier to sneak in and put a physical receiver into one of their central systems, but in the spirit of keeping our options open, I might as well learn.

Even if doing it the manual way is going to be very slow.

Comments

[arkproject]

[ She actually thinks about this first bit for a long moment, deciding what she'd do with Simon's cortex chip if she had it, deactivated. Catherine decides he's always seemed to prefer life even as a WAU creature over silence and death, so... ]

Probably build you something as humanoid as possible and then plug you into it. I see your point.

Can we not talk about people who are dead at the bottom of the Atlantic in a different dimension? I'd rather just leave them where they are. [ That kind of grief is-- too hard to approach. Whatever Catherine's reluctance to claim any friends, thinking she did have some but they're dead now, forever, or on the ARK and out of reach, is going from zero to sixty on the emotional processing scale. ]

[theseuschip]

[ Simon builds an elaborate moat of denial to avoid emotional processing of this very kind but he posits it to Catherine because he’s an asshole. (Unintentionally.) ]

I just mean you can make friends here, too. You’ll be extra cool because nobody else can do the things you can, even the stuff that wasn’t really your specialty.

[arkproject]

Uh-huh. Somehow that little factoid hasn't worked for me in the past.

Don't strain yourself over it, Simon. I'm happy the way things are. Just being here, knowing we finished what we set out to do, and that [ this version of ] you aren't still stuck there without me is enough. That I get to contribute to something is a bonus.

[theseuschip]

I’m not straining anything. That’s just what I think.

But I’m happy you’re happy.
Until we have to leave Drakstaden, anyway. Now that you’re an android, I might need reinforcements when it’s time to go back and I have to pull you away from the computers kicking and screaming.

[arkproject]

Someone told me we don't usually go to places this advanced. I can't believe it! Do you use your money for anything? You should stock up on things with me in case we need to make modifications to one of us later. Or 2B or 9S, I guess. Who does maintenance on them?

Have you all just been going around clunking along with no upkeep?

[theseuschip]

They do it on themselves. I’ve seen it, it’s kind of freaky.

I don’t know what to stock up on. I could just give you money and you could get whatever you need, I guess. I’m pretty good at saving it now that I don’t eat or wear clothes.
Maybe you can build me something cool. A stun gun would be nice.

[arkproject]

So you're the only one wandering around with good intentions and hope that you won't fall apart. Great.

You want a weapon? [ Simon with a weapon ?? ] I don't know... I could try. I've never made something like that before. It's not like I'm planning on spending my money on anything else, either.

[ Catherine probably has four outfits and rotates between them. ]

[theseuschip]

What else am I supposed to do? I’m made of structure gel. I don’t even know how that works, and neither does anybody else.

[ She used to have one outfit. That’s almost like progress.

Totally unlike Human Simon, who was totally not one of those ‘how many clothes even are there... like 3, right’ dudes. ]

[arkproject]

You're not made of structure gel, you're a composite of multiple materials, structure gel being one of them. I'd still feel better if I had a chance to look you over. It's kind of exciting, actually... I'd never have been able to back in PATHOS.

[theseuschip]

Didn’t we do that already with the Compound Examiner?

[ you think the more weird unpredictable (pseudo-)medical scenarios you get into, the more used to them you get, but really they just get worse

guaranteed no ventricular shunts though, just a trusted borderline-mad-scientist friend ]

[arkproject]

No way! I got to go over the readouts, sure, but I've never really gotten to examine you myself. And who else is going to do it?

[theseuschip]

Getting a little nervous now, but okay.

Shouldn’t you be examining yourself? You’re half-magic now. We don’t even know what you’re made out of, do we?

[arkproject]

Come on, you know I'm not going to do anything.

Don't remind me! Who thought combining magic with perfectly good technology was a good idea? I'm never going to figure it out.

[theseuschip]

Well... you know what they say about sufficiently advanced technology.

[arkproject]

That it's way better than magic and they should stop trying to muddy the waters?

[theseuschip]

[ okay, it’s kind of funny to see Catherine be salty about this. ]

You sure about better? Magic’s starting to grow on me.

[ No, he’s not goading her. perish the thought, Simon would never. ]

[arkproject]

[ She's not offended, or feeling inadequate, but salty is definitely about right. If it weren't gatekeeping her own android form, maybe she'd feel differently. A little. ]

Uh-huh. What kind of magic, exactly?