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.


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[warandpeace]

[He almost mentions that it wouldn't have been a sure enough win in his opinion, not when the ship was already generating its own enemies. But he stalls in the middle of putting on his overcoat.]

What is it that you miss most about it? The Moira?

[notglitching]

[What is it that he... what? Noise picks up a little, but Rinzler lags in return, fingers curling at the edge of his projected keyboard. That... he doesn't... why would it matter?

It's gone.

...]

We were a system.

[They were. He was. He wanted it, and he was part of it, and even when it didn't work, it had been his.]

[warandpeace]

We were...

[He sighs and leans against the counter. Hums a thought to himself.]

I loved my base. My first base. It was like my family. I never felt like I had a place in the world since, and after I lost it...

Rebuilding it alone was nearly impossible. It was just me. And afterwards, I wanted my home back. I wanted it to be the same. But because I was broken, so was it. [And that is excruciating to admit. He has before, to Snake. To code talker. His paranoia and grief caused their soldiers to turn on each other at a crucial time. But he wants Rinzler to hear this.]

I know that system is gone, but we can build a new system.

[He says "we". Not because it's his home, or because he expects a home. But because he knows what being without your secure place is like, and he knows what it's like to be unable to find a new one.] It won't be the same. It won't be a replacement. It'll just be new.

We just gotta find people to help us. It's either that, or we're stuck relying on the Savrii. And we live right now only by their pity.

[notglitching]

[The story isn't a close match. Rinzler has had other systems. Other homes. Ones he fit into much better than the Moira. Rinzler was broken long before he rezzed in aboard that ship. If anything, living there had only made the fractures more apparent.

He doesn't know why he misses it. He doesn't know why it mattered as completely as it had. Because they'd allowed him to fly and move and string together words without command? Because he'd wanted the function they assigned? (And when, along the way, had he learned how to want?) Or because of the functions who'd talked to him and fought him, learned and traded and gotten in his way? Because it was the first time anyone came back?

He doesn't know. He doesn't like it. The opaque shell twitches sideways, silent dissent—he doesn't build; he doesn't make. There's a system here already, and he trusts it not at all. He doesn't think any new creation would do better. That's too much to answer, though; too many words to string together. Pare down.]

This place: theirs.

[Their worlds. Their system. There's no room for anything else here, and Rinzler, at least, doesn't have the option of leaving.]

[warandpeace]

[Mostly his story is meant to say they could make their own system. If they didn't go into it with the wrong ideas, anyway. And to trust Rinzler with information about himself. But more to the point, this system is the Savrii's.]

Yes, it is.

And I don't like being a part of it.

Right now we don't have a lot of options. Not yet, anyway. But what if we did?

We don't seem to be particularly welcome, but right now the Savrii seem to perceive themselves as being philanthropists. [Because really, allowing them to live isn't quite the generosity one would think it is. Giving them money? Morso. Introducing them to a climate where they're generally an unwanted element in the populous? Well... he's had enough experiences with that. Let him tell you about the Base in Yokosuka, or the National Origins Formula of the US.] I'm sure they'll change their minds. [Cynic that he is. Self-fulfilling prophecy? Maybe a little. But a building full of dead didn't do all that much to set him at ease during their introductions.]

[notglitching]

[Of course the Savrii will betray them. Or die, or fail, just like everything in the user world seems to. (Himself included.) Rinzler doesn't care. Rinzler never believed them from the start.

But Clu is here, and Alan-one is here, and so are the others. Leaving was never an option.

The enforcer doesn't type any reply—only angles his helmet, noise quickening with mute frustration. Is Miller suggesting something, or was all of this just looping through what ifs?]