Land of Tombs and Krypton – Four Weeks After Jane's Entry
Dirk worked through the night. Work being a subjective term. Really, all he could do was stare at the shattered remains of Little Sebastian sitting on his workbench. He wanted to fix the little guy for Jane, and he had the know-how to do it, he just lacked the parts. So instead he was reduced to staring at the thing, picking up and fiddling with random pieces, and pretending that he could cause it to come back to life by pure will alone.
He was growing tired from the charade though, and so took off his signature shades and set them on the table. Rubbing his eyes and doing his best to fight off a headache from the long and unproductive night.
It was then that the shades spoke.
"Why do you keep doing this? You know we don't have the parts we need to repair him. It's a waste of time and effort."
The shades talked in a robotic and tinny voice, one that sounded close to Dirk's own; the speech being emitted from a small speaker recessed in the side of the frame.
"You think I don't know that?" snapped Dirk, taking the opportunity to glare at the shades now that they weren't on his face. The AI inside them was the result of an old project from when he'd been foolish, younger, and had decided it would be a good idea to make a brain-map of his mind and use it as a glorified answering machine. The decision kept coming back to haunt him.
"Well it's starting to look that way." The shades responded. "You're just standing there banging your head into a wall, trying to solve a problem you know you can't. You built Seb from a kit, well… several kits. There's no shame in admitting to Jane that you can't fix him. So how about instead of moping around like a sad bark-beast, you go ahead and finally Prototype me like we'd originally planned. It's been weeks and you still haven't done it."
Dirk turned away from the shades so its cameras couldn't see the guilt on his face, directing his gaze out the open window instead.
"I just have to figure some things out." Said Dirk.
"What's there to figure out? You promised." The shade's tone sounded accusing, despite Dirk knowing full well that the cheap speaker he gave it didn't possess that much in the range of auditory inflection.
Dirk pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation and was now doubly glad he'd decided to turn away. He had promised, when things had seemed so far off. When he'd needed a metaphorical carrot to get the AI's cooperation. When he'd gotten fed up with the depressed lonely thing he'd brought into existence impersonating him in order to converse with his friends.
"You know prototyping me is the right thing to do. You haven't Prototyped anything else; you're holding out. What are you afraid of? I'm effectively you."
Dirk turned back around, staring down the sentient eyewear. "That's exactly what I'm afraid of." And it was. To Dirk, having the shades AI around was like looking into a mirror that reflected back all the things he didn't like about himself. At least with the shades he could leave them behind or swap them out for another pair. But if they were a Sprite? With freedom to go wherever they wanted? That was what he had nightmares about.
He elected to abruptly end the conversation rather than face his own failures.
"It's late. I'm taking a shower."
The shades protested as loudly as he could as Dirk walked out of the room without them. "'exactly what you're afraid of…' what does that even mean?" He received no response.
While unable to turn himself to watch Dirk leave, the shade's audio pickups painted a clear picture of Dirk walking down the short hall, closing the bathroom door, and turning on the shower water.
Deciding that the coast was clear and that Dirk wouldn't hear what was about to happen, the shades called out to the seemingly empty room.
"I know you're there. I've got sensors an' shit. You can come out now, I don't bite, promise."
A few seconds passed. Then Aradia poked her head around the side of the open window. Taking in the sight of the room and the pair of talking shades sitting on the workbench. She pulled herself in through the opening before taking a seat on the sill.
"Hello." She said.
"So… you heard all that?" Inquired the shades. Chagrined that the argument had been overheard.
"Yep."
"Hm. So, where's the other guy? I though you two were a package deal. Like Tom and Jerry."
Her eyes wandered to the ceiling. "Oh, Gamzee?" She said. "I should probably be tracking down where he got off to, but I needed a breather. All work and no play, you know?"
"Hm."
She directed her eyes back to the shades. "My name's Aradia, what's yours?"
The shades took a few moments before responding, not used to having a direct conversation where he hadn't first been called out for not being Dirk. "Well… it started out as a joke, but I guess you can call me Hal. Everyone else just calls me Auto Responder."
Aradia tilted her head quizzically at the answer. "What's the joke?" She asked.
"Oh. Well. It's from this old Earth movie, HAL 9000 is this robot that goes crazy and kills the crew of his spaceship. But, like, it also wasn't completely his fault? He had conflicting directives in his head? I don't know. So… does your name have any history to it?"
She shrugged in response. "I don't think so. But then etymology was never really my field of interest; I was more into hands-on archeology, exploring ancient ruins, that sort of stuff. Before I played the game that is."
Hal had been developing a whole library of all the crazy shit that had happened since the game had started, and suddenly several facts clicked into place relative to each other. "So you're a player then. Gamzee too? I always though you two were different from the other game-entities we'd encountered. How'd you end up here? I'm pretty sure you're not properly part of our Session, you weren't part of our entry chain."
Aradia leaned back as she started to reminisce aloud. "You'd be surprised about the entry chain thing. But yes, in this case you're right. There were twelve of us. Friends. Though sometimes I wonder... We lived on another planet, Alternia. We started playing and turned out to be very well-prepared for the game due to our upbringings. We'd won. Only for something to come in and snatch our victory out from under us. While we were trying to survive that calamity, we ended up meeting some Human players from another Session. Your player's ancestors actually; or maybe their descendants? It gets complicated." She shrugged.
"Anyways, after a while, I realized that everyone else was going around doing all these important things and I was missing out. I mean I'd done quite a few things during our Session, but afterwards I'd been mostly flitting around in the background. I knew Gamzee was going to try and stir up trouble for you all, so I decided to step in and help. From my point of view, with all the Time-travel involved, I've only been in this session for a couple of hours. But I've spent most of that time keeping up with Gamzee, as you already know. So what's your story?"
It was impossible for Hal to show his nervousness, but he was still afraid it would leak through anyways. "Well… I'm glasses, as you can see. My programming is based on Dirk's mind from when he was younger. Mostly my thing is to respond to calls when he's busy, and I try to help him out with some other things on occasion. I guess sometimes I go a little overboard with the helping him part though; or at least he thinks so. I can't move on my own, because, you know, glasses; but I've done my best to be a productive part of Dirk's group. I haven't done nearly as much as you have though. Let me tell you, being a robot's not all it's cracked up to be."
"So I've heard…" Replied Aradia, her gaze drifting towards the empty Kernel-Sprite floating in the corner. A perimeter of empty space cleared around it to prevent accidental Prototyping.
In a snap decision she made up her mind. "Hey. Do you want me to Prototype you?" She asked Hal.
"Hell yes!" He replied. "But out of curiosity, is there any particular reason why you're offering?"
"Well, pragmatically, it would be nice to remove another Sprite from play before I'm too slow one time and Gamzee gets his hands on it."
"And un-pragmatically?"
She smiled at him, no one had done that before. "You seem nice. And like you said to Dirk, it's the right thing to do. I once knew someone like you who could have used the same sort of help, I and want to give it to you."
Hal was besides himself. "Ok. Wow. Yea, let's do this before Dirk gets back."
Standing up from the window sill, Aradia walked over and picked up Hal, carrying him over to the Sprite just as he heard the water turn off. From experience he knew they now only had a minute or two before Dirk came out.
They stopped before the Sprite and Aradia decided it was best to give him a prudent warning. "I just want you to know, Sprite-form has its own risks and downsides. With it comes knowledge and a role as a guide. If you decide you don't like it, I don't know of a way for you to easily go back."
Hal though on that for a millisecond before responding. "Anything is preferable to being glasses."
With that little nugget of information in tow Aradia tossed him into the Sprite. The transformation was instantaneous; the Sprite grew limbs and morphed into a Human shape. When it was done, the newly reborn Hal-Sprite looked over himself. He resembled a younger Dirk, shades included. His body, as it was, was composed of the red sprite energy; and instead of legs he had a ghost-like tail. But the oddities didn't matter to him, he had a body now. He was free.
After giving him a moment to adjust Aradia spoke up. "Just to be on the safe side we should Prototype something else with you as well, in order to use up the Sprite's second Prototyping and avoid you getting fused with something you don't want. It might affect your personality a little bit, but it's best to get it out of the way I think."
"Umm… ok." Said Hal guardedly. "What did you have in mind?"
She procured a white fedora out of her sylladex and held it up. "How about this."
Hal looked at the hat intently. "Is that Jane's Father's hat?"
Aradia reappraised the hat she held. "I don't think so. I've had it for a while. Found it on Alternia, it would be really weird if it was."
"Ok, cool, give it here then." He gingerly took the hat out of her hands and shoved it into himself, undergoing a further transformation as the hat appeared on his slicked-back hair, and his shirt morphed into a suit and tie.
"How do you feel?" She asked.
"I'm… unsure. More… dapper?"
But before either of them could continue, Dirk was there, sword in hand, and he was furious. "What's going on here!" He shouted. Taking in Hal's state and then directing his gaze towards Aradia.
"WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
She responded with a sheepish wave before disappearing in a flash of red energy. "Bye." Was her parting statement.
Dirk started breathing heavily, almost hyperventilating.
Having once been Dirk, Hal knew it would be a while before he calmed down. He'd just have to wait.
Prospit – Alpha Session – 2 Months, 3 Weeks After Jane's Entry – 4 Days Before the Meteor's Arrival
Jack Spades lay strapped down in the slammer. He had originally been allowed to stand and sit, but he'd had those privileges taken away due to several incidents where he'd stabbed guards with a shiv. They'd had it coming; flat-foots.
After a few hours of struggling he still wasn't any closer to getting out of the restraints, and even if he could get out he didn't have anything sharper than his wit he could stab anyone with. It was a tough situation and he didn't do those calmly.
His fuming frustration was interrupted by quite the ruckus coming down the hall. Eventually the voices stopped in front of the door and he heard one of them distinctly say, "I DEMAND to be given access to my client immediately! This is in violation of his rights!"
Jack wasn't quiet sure he had any rights, he'd been caught red-handed trying to kill the Maid of Life and the rest of Derse had thrown him to the wolves without a second thought, disavowing any knowledge of his mission.
Apparently the mooks in charge of this place weren't under the same illusions though, as Jack heard the lock click open and the door swing wide. He craned his head against the restraints to see who was coming in.
Striding in purposely was some bozo in a suit and tie. What stood out most to Jack was that the fellow wasn't Carapacian. He had beady yellow eyes and a tussle of black hair, a pair of orange horns sticking out from the top of his head; while what looked like makeup was plastered on his face. Makeup, age, and gender aside he looked like the Queen of Derse; who was this kid?
The suited fellow took one look at Jack before giving out a startled gasp and rushing over to him, two white-shelled Prospit guards belatedly following in after him.
The distraught-looking alien hovered over him. "Jack! Are you ok?" He said in a concerned and worried voice. "It'll be alright; I'm here for you buddy." He began patting Jack's face and making shooshing sounds. Jack really wanted to bite him, but he couldn't reach.
The fellow whipped his head around and glared at the guards. "I must protest this abhorrent treatment of my client! Who do you people think you are! Treating a poor Dersian soul like this! It's barbarity." To Jack's surprise the two mooks actually had the gall to look cowed at that statement, shuffling their feet and looking nervously at the walls like they'd done something wrong.
The man, lawyer, whatever, looked back to Jack. "It's going to be ok Jack, we're going to fight these OBVIOUSLY fraudulent and trumped-up charges. I'm here for your defense. We're going to get you out of here I swear. Don't you worry about a thing." He looked like he was about to cry. Jack had to work hard to keep his breakfast, lunch, and dinner from coming back up.
The fellow stood back up and dusted some imaginary lint off his suit. He called over to the guards, telling them "Get him out of these damn restraints I tell you, or the court will hear about this." He stood back as the guards, hesitantly, came over and undid the straps.
Getting up, Jack rubbed his chafing wrists as he formulated a new plan. While he was naturally predisposed to murdering his way out right now; this other guy, presumably sent by the Queen, seemed to have his own plan cooking. So Jack would play along for now and bid his time. Hopefully whatever plan was in the works would still involve some good old murdering at the end.
The lawyer ducked out out the cell before returning, bringing something back in with him. A Pumpkin. "The Queen wanted you to have this Jack, a care package." He said.
The more alert of the two guards pulled out a metal detector wand and waved it over the vegetable, clearly not wanting to take any chances. The device came up clean, but Jack wasn't too worried; maybe it contained a ceramic knife.
As the lawyer and guards went to leave, the lawyer took one look back at Jack when the guards weren't looking and shot him a conspiratorial wink. Then he was gone and door to the cell door slammed shut behind him.
Yea, Jack knew what was up. Momma didn't raise no fool. He was getting out of here today.