Come Sail Away IC Inbox

[crushed_pearls]

Erin's voice mail message is in a weary voice: "Erin Peters. If you called in the middle of the night and I didn't answer, I'm dying. If I pick up and someone on your end isn't dying, they will be shortly. Text otherwise."

Comments

[serialskiller]

"It's unlocked, come on in."

Murderbot's inside, sitting on the bed. On the dresser is a small media player, some show playing until she steps inside (when it pauses the serial and turns toward her).

[crushed_pearls]

Erin finds a corner to put her back to once she shuts the door. She's shaking, a little; face still a bit red, amorphous hair particularly stormy and unsettled. But she's got her best game face on.

"Thank you for thinking of me," she says by way of greeting. "...'cha need?"

[serialskiller]

"...if you're not up for it, that's okay."

It may not be good at reading emotions, but humans aren't supposed to be vibrating.

[crushed_pearls]

"Nah, 's fine. Well no, but this kind of thing helps. It's...hard to find the balance between being alone enough to work on my shit vs. self-isolating until I can't tell all the voices apart. I've just been..."

Crying.

"Working. On that. I'm a big girl, I'll turn you down if I have to."

[serialskiller]

How to start with actually articulating its needs.

"Sarge vanished. He'd been doing it for me. People here vanish sometimes. We don't know where they go. Maybe back home? Probably not."

[crushed_pearls]

Well that's fucking ominous.

Erin takes in a breath. "Alright. I'm gonna walk past that part for now: doing what?"

[serialskiller]

"I don't sleep. I completely shut down to recharge. And I won't do that here unless someone's guarding my body. I need someone who's willing to sit with me when I'm down for a few hours. Otherwise...I can go without for a while, but my performance reliability drops steeply after a few days."

[crushed_pearls]

"Me?"

A whole lot of feelings well up in Erin's chest at this casual expression of trust. Immediately they form an alliance with her panic and depression; a sob escapes her throat, and she holds out a finger in the universal 'give me a minute' gesture. She fights down the tears she can't cry, armor tinkling with the shake of her body.

The gunpowder in the air around her sizzles wetly.

"I - I mean, I accept obviously, but. Why me?"

[serialskiller]

"Because you told me that you need something to do to help. And I believe you're actually competent. I saw you at Darcy's little fight club. I was watching."

Its drones were watching, more closely than it. But it was watching, before Dimitri beat it up.

[crushed_pearls]

Erin gives a weak "ha!" and shakes her head. The ghost of a smile flickers on her lips. "Better class of work than I'm used to, and I'm happy to help. Let's talk details. Any set time you prefer to shut down? Anyone in particular after you at the moment? And uh." She pauses. "What amount of dead do you want intruders turned to?"

[serialskiller]

“The timing doesn’t matter, and if need be it can be every other day instead of every day. Sarge and I were doing afternoons. I watched over him as he napped, in exchange. People after me? Not actively. Max and I don’t get along, but he wouldn’t come after me recharging, I don’t think.”

The last question needs a moment of thought.

“People are fine when they come back from the dead. Leave them in pain.”

[crushed_pearls]

That ghostly smile solidifies into something vicious. "Loud and clear, SecUnit. I'm fine with daily but I do have fight club. Can you swing mornings, say at eight?"

[serialskiller]

"I can do that, yes. Usually my roommate isn't in here at that time, but if she does enter, don't hurt her unless she becomes a threat to me. She's...okay."

[crushed_pearls]

Erin nods thoughtfully. "I'm picking up, then, that you want me posted inside the room. Couple other questions: what does your roommate look like, and do you make sudden noises during the boot process?"

[serialskiller]

“Jinx is shorter than me. Long hair, blue, usually worn in pigtail braids. Clothing that shows off her skin. Pink eyes. She’s loud, energetic. As for my boot process, no. I boot silently.”

Surprise, it’s living with that particularly dangerous youngblood who’s prone to blowing herself up.

[crushed_pearls]

"Oh!" Erin brightens up Fucking Considerably. "I met Jinx on the beach and again playing Never Have I Ever. She's cursed me with a need to try hair dye for uh, witchcraft reasons. She...seems like she's been going through some things."

Like me.

"Last relevant question, though I suspect that I know the answer since security is your day job: the times of your rest are secret, yes?"

[serialskiller]

“Jinx is definitely going through things. It’s hard for her, here. I mean, it’s hard for everyone, I know, but. She seems to feel things a lot more intensely than some people.” Like it.

“As for secrecy, in theory. In practice, I’m sure people realize that if my drones aren’t active, I’m probably inactive somewhere.”

[crushed_pearls]

"Ahh, that's those little fragments that have the light behind your eyes. I'd wondered how you got so small and airborne."

[serialskiller]

“...what.”

She’s going to need to unfold that a little bit...

[crushed_pearls]

"Oh, uh. Not to bring a touchy topic back up, but..."

Erin's hands gesture. She's stopped shaking; her musical voice is becoming strong and melodious again. Something, very persistently, reminds SecUnit of a flower opening.

"This blindfold helps me see by the power of Wyrd, that which relates all things to all other things. It's found everywhere you can find things and people. When I look at a person," beat, "or you, or an object of real power, I can see them very clearly. Everything that connects them to others is revealed to me, not like...like for instance, I could see your armor because it relates you to the people you protect, but also to others who are warriors or protectors. Your drones 'look' to me like flying blobs that are inescapably you. They have your selfhood."

[serialskiller]

"They're parts of me. Accessories, yes, but they function as sensory organs as much as my eyes, my ears or my wireless data receiver. That makes sense." It nods a bit, but even as it does, it reaches to touch a blanket on the bed for a little reassurance.

(It's a weighted blanket, and scented with lavender and chamomile.)

[crushed_pearls]

"I can't not see this way unless you've got a spare set of eyeballs lying around," Erin murmurs. "...But. That's the reason I assumed you were a person immediately. Again, I'm not gonna press you on that. I just...hope it makes sense as a perspective."

[serialskiller]

"I appreciate that you're not pressing me. Everyone seems to want to press me right now and I'm at a point where...I fear the epiphany that I'm going to have soon is going to break my capacity to hold any faith in humanity."

It can be this blunt with her. It knows she gets breakdowns.

[crushed_pearls]

Erin shrugs, a little distantly. "It's no one's place to tell you how to handle your shit unless you ask us to, SecUnit. Even then...the kindest of friends can still be wrong. They can overstep, they can have bad information, they can just not get it. No one and nothing can ever fully, wholly, truly know anyone or anything else. We're all just prisoners behind our own eyes, doing the best we can. When you tell me who you are, the polite thing to do is believe you. That people aren't meeting that as a bare minimum is...enraging...to me. But it's also not my place to step in unless you ask."

[serialskiller]

"You almost sound like you want me to sic you on someone who's being an asshole."

Which is a momentary deflection to allow it a moment of thought.