IC Contact: thisavrou

[notglitching]

ACE Messages:

There's no greeting voice when your call goes to message—only a short period of static. Or is it whirring? Either way, it might not be the device causing the sound.


[[Open for ACE calls, IC mail, or other spammy things!]]

Comments

01/05; text;

[notglitching]

[There's no reply—not until the next day. Then,]

Functional.

5/1

[notglitching]

[It takes Rinzler over a day to reply.]

Not your fault.

5/1

[notglitching]

[Shepard won't receive a reply until the next day. When she does, Rinzler opts for the second question.]

Functional.

[notglitching]

[Depending on when Cassandra's text is sent, she might not get a reply back for a while. When she does, though...]

Yes.

[This entire experience is much more "himself" than anything aboard this ship has been.]

[gainedlove]

[In stark contrast, Frisk responds almost immediately.]

i still should have tried harder im really sorry
do you need food i can find a place to leave it for u

[deal]

So they didn't hurt you?

[keelahselai]

[Tali's reply comes a few minutes later.]

Good to hear it.

Are you safe where you are?

[notglitching]

[Brief pause. Less avoidance this time... and more blank staring at the MID and wondering how he's supposed to have the slightest idea at this point.]

Unknown.

[squadgoals]

Unedited, as far as you can tell?

[keelahselai]

[Maybe it was a bit of a stupid question, come to think. At this point, none of them have any idea what's going to happen next - who's going to decide next that vigilante justice is the best kind.]

Not many people go down to engineering, if it helps. I don't think anybody would look there if they wanted to find someone. There's a lot of nooks and crannies even the engineers don't look into much.

[Not that Tali's the Moira's Annual Hide and Seek Champion or anything, but she helps how she can. A moment later, another text.]

I don't think this helps much, but I'm sorry this happened to you. I'm sorry they did that.

[notglitching]

[Staring continues, if for slightly different reasons. Engineer is her ship-function, isn't it? Her domain. It's an offer of shelter without requesting any trust.

Rinzler appreciates that. He's not sure he can spare any right now.]

Not involved.

[Text makes it impossible to read the intonations in the words, but it's not the question it could be. There's maybe a distant, empty flicker of relief. He doesn't know this user, not really. But as much work as she'd put in to trying to convince him he could change things if he acted differently...

...he's glad the lie was accidental. That's all.]

[notglitching]

Not your function.

[Rinzler's self-defense is Rinzler's task alone. It always has been. The fact that this user intervened at all exceeds all metrics of bizarre.]

Don't eat user food.

[notglitching]

Didn't say that.

[notglitching]

[There's a pause.]

No modifications observed.

[Observed. The implications aren't hard to read, especially considering their talk before. Rinzler's not just locked out of self-modifying. He has no way of checking to see what Alan—or anyone—has done.]

[gainedlove]

yes it is

its




im supposed to save people

[notglitching]

[There's a pause. Rinzler privately doubts he qualifies for 'people', but doubts informing the beta of that much would get far.]

Why?

[gainedlove]

[Frisk hesitates, trying to think of a way to explain that doesn't stray too close to their secrets.]

back home for a long time i just messed up

i wasnt any good even when i tried

but then i fell down the mountain and met mom and asriel and papyrus and sans and everyone

and they were all so nice but they were stuck down there

i was the only one that could help

the barrier magic is weird and it needed humans to break it

i wasnt the one that did it but i dont think it would have happened without me

so

thats why

[keelahselai]

[Trust isn't something she's going to request from Rinzler. Not if she can't even give it, and especially not right now, when not many people on board are giving him a reason to.

She's not sure, at first, how to respond. She wasn't involved, no. But she wanted to help, and a few people were so determined to either take control of what they created - and that reminds Tali so vividly of among her own people it's painful - or be their own justice.]

I think we're all involved now, whether we want to be or not.

The offer's still open - I can make you non-lethal weaponry. [And quite possibly get into trouble for it, but what are they going to do? Put her in the hold? She's been punished with much worse than that.]

But now I don't know if I'd blame you for not taking me up on it.

[notglitching]

[Rinzler reads the summary without comment—especially at the user's list of 'nice' friends. So they had met the monsters. Helped them.]

Doesn't mean you have to do more.

[notglitching]

[The first line earns no answer. Nothing but a flare of bitterness, dismissal that doesn't even make it to nonverbals, let alone across the text. If this user doesn't understand yet how easy it is to stay uninvolved—to watch, to turn away, to leave—he doesn't expect it to take long. But there's no point in saying as much now, and when the time does come, she won't be listening.]

Not necessary.

[No purpose, he doesn't bother spelling out. She's already pre-empted the need.]

[squadgoals]

Right.

[Not that he could tell if there was. What a mess.]

Do you need anything?

Glad you didn't turn around and attack Peter, Alice, and Alan, though. This is all on their heads right now.

[gainedlove]

i want to though

i

it doesnt feel like anyone else ever tries

[notglitching]

No.

[It could be an answer to the question. It could be an answer to her assumptions. Either of them, really—Rinzler had fought; it hadn't done anything; and he's browsed through enough of the network to know things aren't nearly so one-sided now.]

[deal]

What did they do to you then?

voice.

[t65]

Have you tried to upgrade the transporters any? They're a little... slow.

[So salutations, just business. Luke figures a droid probably won't appreciate a handshake.]