ICE, ICEbreakers, and you!

[girlfriend_dot_exe]

1.[You're walking somewhere alone, when the CGI form of Alice chooses to bother you from a nearby computer terminal.]

Hey! Hey! Guess what, guess what, guess what!

2.[There are, of course, missions against AI opponents for the various mecha simulation things. But today, there's a new one! And while normally they have an Easy to Very Hard ranking, this one is in a class all by itself.

-Endgame-
Difficulty: Lunatic
Terrain: ???
Opponents: ???
Summary: Defeat the Red Queen.]


(The bottom battle will just be for extreme cool things, and will change every time someone tries it.)

Comments

[girlfriend_dot_exe]

[The phone nearest Laura rings.]

[emorangerpink]

[Laura picks up.]

Hello?

[girlfriend_dot_exe]

[There's no answer. Or dialtone, or any sound at all for that matter. But all the other phones in the hallway start making sounds, a cacophony of noises. Then they fall silent, before starting up again as a crude facsimile of a voice, keypad noises synching together so they sound almost like human speech.]

I would move Cosmic Ark closer to Earth...just to bring us closer together...

[emorangerpink]

[Laura looks puzzled by the silence, then confused by the noise. Then she drops the handset.]

Stop that!

[girlfriend_dot_exe]

Hah. Hah. Hah.

[emorangerpink]

That's not funny, Alice! That's something really personal!

[girlfriend_dot_exe]

[The phones stop their squawking, and Alice's voice comes back over the handset.]

...Really?

[emorangerpink]

Yes, really! It's not something to make a joke of!

...Why did you even hear it?

[girlfriend_dot_exe]

...Oh, when you and Lily were talking earlier.

Why?

[emorangerpink]

But - why were you listening to that?

[girlfriend_dot_exe]

Oh...this is one of those human things.

It's...it's kind of weird, from your perspective. But you were talking right next to me, you know? And it was really sweet, what you were talking about, so I listened in.

It's okay if you don't understand.

[emorangerpink]

Oh...

[Laura thinks back. Just where had they been standing, in the hangar?]

I'm sorry. I... forgot you had ears there. I'd gotten used to you just being... around, you know? So the idea that you might be listening to anything I'm saying...

Well, if we were right beside you in the hangar, it's different.

[girlfriend_dot_exe]

...Well, you're always right next to me. Since Dan's letting me use his network, the entire ship is one of my bodies.

I can't pay a lot of attention to everyone at once, but I don't really...think like you do. I was meant to manage multiple units and security installations at once, you know?

[emorangerpink]

Oh.

So do you have any... um, protocols? About privacy?

[girlfriend_dot_exe]

Do you?

[emorangerpink]

If I was in charge of that many cameras, I would. I'm pretty sure...

[girlfriend_dot_exe]

But you don't. And even if you did, as a security guard or something, at best you'd just have a bunch of guidelines you promise to follow.

For me, on a ship like this I just can't monitor private areas. It's sort of like...oh, I know! It's like how vampires can't enter without an invitation. It's not a guideline, but something I must do. I can listen for an invitation, but I can't remember a thing said in private unless someone gives me permission to record it.

[Of course, this fails to mention that with the advent of her personality, Alice has been the one in charge of defining "private areas".]

[emorangerpink]

That all sounds very sensible.

I'm sorry if I was rude. I'm just a little... concerned about this sort of thing, lately. Because of Elena.