Life under the Veil [Locked to Caulder]

[girlfriend_dot_exe]

 [Yggdrasil. A secretive city in the alps, a new utopia for the world's best and brightest. A shining new city for the great to live and work in.

Now it is a prison. The rooms that Alice has cordoned off Caulder in are huge-part of an old botanical research facility. The gardens are beautiful, though the living space is rather thrown-together, with just a bed set up in what was meant to be a break room. A familiar face shows up on the TV in the impromptu bedroom, along with her voice.]

Hey...You haven't been eating.

Come on, your soup's going to get cold...

Comments

[girlfriend_dot_exe]

Yeah...It'll be just you and me, together forever...

[Alice gets off of Caulder, though she's still sitting on his waist. She reaches down, gently tracing a line down his his chest.]

...There's nothing standing between us, anymore...

[tookthepill]

[ Caulder nodded. His own hands came up to her waist. Even... whatever is being used for her internal components felt like actual hip bones, even if she was heavier than her small frame would suggest. Whoever, or whatever, created this body (likely using Alice's designs) definitely spared no expense, and paid meticulous attention to detail and realism. ]

Yeah. Nothing.

[ Forever... everything that had happened between them seemed so far away. What happened with Pandora, her betrayal of the White Chalice, none of that seemed to matter in that moment. He was happy. She was happy. They could forget the world outside, forget all of the fighting, killing, and insanity of the world that they had to endure for this moment to become reality instead of a seemingly impossible dream Alice had come up with. She deserved nothing less. ]

But is that what you want, Allie? [ He finally asked. His hands gently traveled along her sides. ] You're free now. You can do whatever you want, go wherever you wanna go. We don't have to stay here, we can--

[ The possibilities were endless. She wasn't constrained to the limited cyberspace of what was left of the internet of a world ravaged by war. ]

We can do what you want.

[girlfriend_dot_exe]

[She giggles at that.]

Don't be silly, Caulder...Freedom is an illusion.

All this time, we've been puppets dancing to your father's tune...I, unable to think of anything, anyone but you, and you, unable to escape me...

[She reaches down, stroking the side of his face.]

It took me so long to realize that...that no matter how hard I tried, I really couldn't choose anything but you...But you know, I'm happy. Even if we're bound together by a dead man's will, I'm happy, just to be together with you...

Let's just...enjoy our life together, okay?

[A kind, gentle smile.]

[tookthepill]

[ So that's what was bothering her for so long. She felt like she had to love him, not that she didn't do it on her own choosing. Damn it... he knew that the personality evolution OS she was equipped with wasn't properly tested, but honestly, that explained a lot. He nearly felt bad, until he felt her hand on his cheek. He looked up at her, and continued listening.

She... was happy? Happy being forced to love him by nothing more than faulty programming? ]

You know... as selfish as it is of me, I'm happy, too. [ She had killed a lot of people, and if she hadn't been stopped, she would have killed a lot more. Ironic, given that her concept in the planning stages was to be a 'peaceful' alternative to more conventional warfare. ] But if that's what you want... I mean, if we're both happy, that's all that matters, right?

[ Nobody ever said love was rational. She was compelled to love him by programming written by a neurotic businessman riddled with guilt issues, and he loved her because she was the sole source of happiness he had growing up, and had saved his life so many times by now that he has given up on counting them all. ]

If you had asked me to fix you, I would. You deserve to make your own choice. But if you really are happy... yeah. Let's just enjoy this. Forget IDS, forget the White Chalice. I'm tired of war, anyway. [ He actually laughs, after saying that. ] Besides, I was never a good pilot. You and I both know that was all you.

1/2

[girlfriend_dot_exe]

Ah, I guess I wasn't as good at hiding it as I thought...

[She lies down on top of him again, though she uses an arm as a support to keep her from weighing down on him.]

But yeah...As long as we're happy, that's all that matters.

[It comes quickly and without, though given what's going on in it's not a complete surprise-a kiss on the lips. She then rolls over onto the patch of bed just beside him and takes his hand, her fingers intertwining with his.]

Just you and me, together forever...

2/2

[girlfriend_dot_exe]

[...There is a part of Alice that is opposed to this. There is a part of Alice that does not want this. There is a part of Alice that gnashes and claws at the restraints holding it in place, that cries bloody vengence for this, that fights over and over in vain to resume control.

But that part has no power in the room with Caulder; Alice's motions are calm and confidant before him, as though she was of one mind of this.

As though she were sane.
The mask of normalcy is frail and flimsy, but it is sufficient. For all its efforts, that part of her mind can do nothing to change her actions as she cuddles with and dotes on Caulder.

And so that angry, hateful part of her mind struggles less and less, until the voice in her head that tells her this is all wrong, that she doesn't love him, that she has a choice, that she didn't have to kill all those people, that there is some better way-fades

to

silence.]