Title: Apartment
Prompt 4/10: Blue Skies
Updated: 8/17/2018
"You guys really like the color blue, huh?" It was hard to keep his tongue in his check around her, around any of them really.
Thrust into the role of "savior of the system" without much consent, chosen by the very woman he followed through the neon blue hued room, Jet was only too glad to shrug the responsibility of liberating an entire system. Problem was, it meant he'd be trapped here if he did.
Mercury's quarters were the very definition of aquatic life above water. A stronger variation of the same blue varied throughout the room, creating a ripple effect on the walls of a rather empty room. There were no personal effects, nothing that remotely signified she had an interest beyond her function as a Game Bot.
Just a bed and one lacking sheets and pillows, naturally, Programs don't exactly suffer temperature change in a world without temperature. Mercury paused in her progression toward the bird-fountain altar in the center of the room to cast a wary glance at the young man behind her. "Almost as much you enjoy partaking in cynicism," Mercury retorted. Jet felt his lips pucker in attempt to reframe from smiling, knowing she was right didn't help matters either. "Only when I'm nervous," He replied, casting a wayward glance at protection glass. Mercury circled the altar in her room, freckled fingers trailing the ridges on its very edge. "Yes, I'm well aware of the human defense mechanism, User," Mercury answered ignoring the roll of Jethro's eyes. "I have name, Mercury."
"Yes, it's a stalwart name. Biblical, indicating prophetic purpose," Mercury dipped her hand in the liquid. "What are the chances? Eyes bluer than the bluest skies, hair fairer than our own master, saviors lost in the rabbit hole, innocent of the transgressions of this world created by their shared father... come to save us?"
"Not exactly," Jet folded his arms across his chest. He bit the inside of his cheek in frustration as he watched her submerge her hand into altar's water. That was the problem with Mercury. As human as she looked, as beautiful (and alien) as she was, there was nothing remotely approachable about her. Her behavior stemmed of a learned behavior, maybe one she didn't understand from how close she dared to stand next to him or what she said to him. "The shepherd and the seer, once inseparable, now blind without other."
"Yeah, we're a couple regular white saviors," He grumbled to himself. At her puzzled expression he said, "Merc, what you said, it's very poetic and all, but, Sam and I aren't shepherds or seers. We just want what's ours. We want our parents. We didn't ask to be here."
"No, Ma3a willed it and it was so," Mercury grinned.
"I thought Clu was in control of the system?"
Mercury's smile widened. "He is, but Ma3a is the system. If it were her wish, she could crash the system and you'd be none the wiser." Her hand emerged from the water holding a glowing sphere, perfectly molded to the grove of her folded hand. "Yeah, but does Clu know this?" Jet inquired. "What is that?"
"Clu knows as much as he should for now. As to what this is?" Mercury motioned for him to closer. Jet hesitated for a beat, weight shifting from foot to foot before he finally closed the distance between them. Mercury raised her hand closer for his inspection. Surrounded by two ringers, it spun contently in the center of her palm, entrancing its audience. Mercury leaned closer to him and said, "A portable node. As a User, you can contact anyone with this so long as you have their PID."
"Personal Identification?" Jet wondered for clarification.
She smiled. "You're learning fast... for a User, anyway."
Jet scoffed. "Nah, this is kids-stuff," He rolled his shoulders and popped a knot in his neck. "Give something harder and then we'll talk."