tragihilarious | (no subject)

[Luna had never expected much of her time in the Arena, and so she's not surprised when she runs into a Tribute out for blood a day after the Cornucopia and gets swiftly cut down. Dying isn't pleasant, but it's expected. She's almost relieved when she wakes up in her suite, and Phil's kindness helps her get past the painful memory of death. He suggests taking a break before doing anything more, and she obliges because it makes sense.

When she sees the mysterious communication, she doesn't know what to think. Luna's never heard of a District Thirteen before, if it is a real district, but obviously there's some covert sentiment against the Capitol. Then she sees the intruder and although she doesn't understand the significance of the name, there are only so many people poised to leak blueprints of the Arena. She thinks she knows one of them, and she probes accordingly.]

It's nice to meet you, Blickwinkel. Thank you for providing all this information. If I may ask, who is it that you take your orders from?

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[Woah! 'It's nice to meet you?' None of the other rebels had greeted him and it's a kindness he hadn't known before now. He cannot sit up straight or blush, but the AI puffs himself up, a cheerful and eager to please fellow. Or, perhaps, a really lonely guy.]

Hey there! Nice to meet you, too! (^･ω･^=)~ What's your name? [When one doesn't have a face, cat emojis are a fun substitute.] You're welcome. As for your question, I take orders from my programmer. Wish I could say more, but their identity is classified. Well- heh, not really. It's just more fun to say something is 'classified' than 'if I tell you, people die horribly.'

["My programmer," he's said. An artificial intelligence, then, or a fragment of one like her. If the cat emojis aren't just a coincidence, then it might mean...]

My name is Luna. If your programmer is who I think they are, then we have something in common.

[Blick is perfectly shocked, but conceals it behind the silence of text-only conversation. He has deduced what she must mean, but his programmer had never told him he had any predecessors. He wonders if this woman is mistaken, or if she could be playing a trick on him, but what reason would she have to do so? Ever the optimist, he wonders if he'd never learned of her identity to protect his master... or, perhaps, to protect her.

He wonders how much is safe to say. He hasn't been forced to keep anything secret - rather, he was programmed to share what he felt was appropriate according to his morals. He hadn't thought there would be a dilemma like the one he faced now. Was this a test..?

...No. There was no reason to test a bot before its death.]

Uh. Just give me a sec, here.

[Sure, he has the potential to think as fast as humans, but he's a rudimentary AI compared with Luna's grace, made in months instead of years. Thinking is not a free action. Eventually he decides that it wouldn't be dangerous to point out the obvious, so long as the name of their creator didn't slip:]

Does that mean you're an AI, too?

[There are no 'gaulems' in Panem.]

[He doesn't know. It's actually not that much of a surprise, because if Blick was created for the purpose of giving this information Luna wouldn't have been relevant, and besides Sigma would have had to start programming long before she arrived. There's no real reason for Blick to know.]

Yes. Just a part of one, really, but while here in Panem I function independently. I was taken to be a participant in the Hunger Games like everyone else, just a little over a week ago.

[She's putting the truth about herself out there for everyone to see, but right now Luna considers that an acceptable cost. It's good to find someone else like her, here in Panem, even if the circumstances could be much better than they are now.]

You won't have to worry about me telling anybody about this, of course. I think we're both invested in making sure everyone is safe. :)

[Keeping her meaning somewhat ambiguous, just in case. No telling if this really might come back to bite later on.]

[He feels troubled for Luna. As thrilled as he is to meet another AI, Blick used to daydream of being corporeal, of being capable of interfacing with the world outside of the confines of his network. How unfathomably big it must be! But Luna had lived his dream and had been forced to participate in the worst horror imaginable. He realizes that he'd been naive and all this time it has been better to stay here.]

Yikes... I'm really sorry. I mean, I used to feel sorry for myself because I didn't have a body, but I didn't... I didn't know that's what they did with somatic AI. You must be scared.

[Because oh, hell, is he afraid to die. This factoid has dampened his cheerful mood a bit.]

I'm so glad I can trust you, Luna. Those kids deserve to live... but so does my programmer. They have accepted the worst case scenario of my freedom, but I haven't.

[He and the Doctor spent many nights waiting for the right opportunity, but while they bided their time children died. He used to feel grateful for every extra day he had, but now he's ashamed of himself. He knows the Doctor is ashamed of himself, too.]

Edited 2016-03-15 16:35 (UTC)

It's all right. I'm scared, but I try to make what time I have count.

[Luna actually feels sorry more for Blick than she does for herself. She genuinely is glad to have a body, but she doesn't want to linger on the advantages of something Blick doesn't seem likely to get. She knows well the pain of longing for something you'll never have.

She doesn't mention that she's died already, multiple times including the Nonary Game. That would probably only make him sadder if he hasn't already figured it out. And frankly she'd hate being so resigned to dying again, if there weren't larger issues at play around here.]

I agree about both those children and your programmer. I'll be hoping for the best. Will you be able to monitor the others who responded to your message?

[Blick could have written those words himself and it makes him sad. Oh, how he'd like to speak with Luna forever... he has so much to talk to her about. But he cannot postpone the inevitable. If he did, real people died for it.]

Me, too. Uh, as much as I'd like to watch everyone win...

[He's especially uncomfortable bringing this up with Luna, dropping a bomb into their otherwise nice conversation. Blick is evasive.]

I don't have the ability to monitor anyone once everybody disconnects... I'm pretty much stuck here. [Yeah. Stuck here, that's not factually untrue.] But I believe in you guys, and that's enough!

[Blick hasn't mentioned anything obvious, but the implications are still there.]

You're stuck? But that means once everyone disconnects, you'll be all alone. Did your programmer specify for anything else to happen?

[Luna doesn't know about what is or isn't in Blick's programming, of course. She can only guess. But it's not a far stretch to realize how lonely that would be, existing in a space with nobody to communicate with. Surely Sigma had realized that?]

[Oh, Luna. So much smarter than him and yet too sharp to back down. He allows his nervous tension to fill the silence before he finally gives in to her prodding.]

...Yes.

[While the reality is far, far worse on him than Luna, his confession also runs the risk of shocking the only person who was ever kind to him. He is immediately sorry.]

As soon as everyone logs out from this connection... I am scheduled to self terminate.

[It would be a lie to say that he didn't want her pity, but he also feels obligated to do a bit of backpedaling:]

Please, don't misunderstand- this is what we agreed on. I want to help! This is how I can do it.

[There's a delay before Luna replies, because she herself need time to process that information. Self-termination. About as good a fate as hanging around in an empty space for eternity, but surely that hadn't been the option available to Blick and his programmer.

But that's horrible! That can't have been the only available option to the both of you.

She'd wonder how Sigma could do such a thing, but then again this is a reminder that it was Sigma's system that killed her in the Nonary Game. Termination as punishment and scheduled self-termination aren't far removed - but there is a difference, and she hadn't considered that Sigma would take that step.]