I am caught off guard by his response to my threat display. Instead of showing fear - or, for that matter, a lack of fear - he shows caution, and concern, and puts himself in an unthreatening posture.
It causes me to hesitate long enough to hear what he says.
"Loaded me?"
Quick review of the pertinent data on human syntax --
"In the way one would load a program?"
I push my fingertips through the surface of my chest again, shuddering at the unfamiliar feeling.
I still do not feel the fear, the endorphin surge, that I expect. If I have no body, then it follows that I have no endorphins that would fill it. Yet I am thinking, existing, and I am still unsure of several things but I knew in my Core how badly damaged I was. In my last moments, I felt the cracks streaking through me as I shattered.
I should not be alive now. My head swims with the impossibility of it.
"My body was destroyed. But my Core..."
Growling, I step forward, testing whether I can move from this spot. I can, and I advance on the man with unkempt black hair. I catalogue every visible difference that I can between this scientist and the one I fear, as if to reassure myself that I am not experiencing some horrific delusion - even as I remain prepared to act on the fear that I am.
((no collar, a white streak where he had none, hair longer, eyes sharper, voice calmer))
"Who are you? Did you repair my Core? Did Banno send you?"
no subject
It causes me to hesitate long enough to hear what he says.
"Loaded me?"
Quick review of the pertinent data on human syntax --
"In the way one would load a program?"
I push my fingertips through the surface of my chest again, shuddering at the unfamiliar feeling.
I still do not feel the fear, the endorphin surge, that I expect. If I have no body, then it follows that I have no endorphins that would fill it. Yet I am thinking, existing, and I am still unsure of several things but I knew in my Core how badly damaged I was. In my last moments, I felt the cracks streaking through me as I shattered.
I should not be alive now. My head swims with the impossibility of it.
"My body was destroyed. But my Core..."
Growling, I step forward, testing whether I can move from this spot. I can, and I advance on the man with unkempt black hair. I catalogue every visible difference that I can between this scientist and the one I fear, as if to reassure myself that I am not experiencing some horrific delusion - even as I remain prepared to act on the fear that I am.
((no collar, a white streak where he had none, hair longer, eyes sharper, voice calmer))
"Who are you? Did you repair my Core? Did Banno send you?"