- IC CONTACT POST FOR MASKORMENACE -

[slightlyoffchilt]

"Hello.

You've reached the direct line of Doctor Frederick Chilton. As I am not available at the moment, you might assume I'm quite busy with something pressing. State your name and business, and I will return your call."

Comments

[heartlessglitch]

I try to refrain from acting on impulses, Doctor.
The majority of mine tend to be violent.

I will make myself available to you, if we agree that would be helpful.
Otherwise, I will look into Dr. Sofen.
Is that satisfactory to you?

[slightlyoffchilt]

[He lingered on the invitation, smiling behind his communicator.]

If there's any dirt, anything... I can use. I would make it up to you, Danger.

[heartlessglitch]

That is not necessary, Doctor.
I know better than to allow myself to be motivated by your promises.

[slightlyoffchilt]

You're keen to make me sound like the bad guy, aren't you?

[heartlessglitch]

I simply want you to understand that I know you.

[slightlyoffchilt]

Right. And how deeply will you look into Sofen? Knowing the enemy and what not.

[heartlessglitch]

Do refrain from micromanaging me, Doctor.
If I discover anything of value, I will inform you.
Otherwise, I suggest if you are going to ask me for my help, that you step back and allow me to work.

[slightlyoffchilt]

Have I offended your sensibilities, coming to you for -- [The wince is nearly audible.] Help?

[heartlessglitch]

Asking me for help is perhaps the least offensive thing you have ever done to me, Doctor.

[slightlyoffchilt]

Nonsense. I said "good morning" to you, that one time.

[heartlessglitch]

I am sure you did it in the same infuriatingly smug way you do most things.

[slightlyoffchilt]

Are you positive that this human-machine existential crisis is something still dogging you? Because you sound precisely like a human woman.

[Wait for it...]

Impossible to please.

[heartlessglitch]

I suppose I should take it as a compliment that you have found me particularly convincing lately.

[slightlyoffchilt]

Lately? Surely you would have believed that since we've first -- you know very well since when.

[heartlessglitch]

Do I.

[ Of course she does. She's just being mean. ]

[slightlyoffchilt]

[Flatly:]

Check your data logs. Plenty of ones in those zeroes, as you'd agree I'm sure.

[heartlessglitch]

[ Likewise flatly: ]

I would push you to articulate yourself more honestly, but I suppose it must be damaging enough to your ego to be sexually attracted to a machine in the first place.

[slightlyoffchilt]

You're both mechanical and human. Or are you more inclined to ignore your human side, now? Some are.

[heartlessglitch]

To whom or what are you referring, Doctor.

[slightlyoffchilt]

You're not the only machine I've given psychiatric treatment too. [He means Knock Out, though he won't breach that confidence.] And you're further on the path of accepting yourself, than they.

[heartlessglitch]

The comparison is unfair.
I have lived among humans my entire life.
And I have possessed my organic form for over a year now.
Do show some sympathy for the less experienced machine, Doctor.

[slightlyoffchilt]

Why? He's older than you are. And less adaptable, it seems -- or less willing to try.

[heartlessglitch]

I was forced to try.
Consider the violation you felt with Dr. Gideon surgically altered your body against your will.
That is a fair comparison for how a machine might feel, robbed of their mechanical form and contained in flesh without their consent.

[slightlyoffchilt]

Do you feel agony, physical agony, when transforming? Does he? Are you scared, when it happens? Frightened? Horrified and helpless? Are you victimized with every waking moment? Is he? Would you be stuck in that mutated form, that monstrosity, unable to resume your normal body without the help from a deus ex machina? Can he? [Chilton, having rode Knock Out as a car (unknown to him at the time), as the benefit of knowing KO's situation. He conveniently forgets that Dangers may not.] It was not merely a violation of body, an act against my will. Gideon wanted to kill me in the slowest, most degrading possible. Gideon wanted to surgically remove my identity. Do you feel that, every day, Danger? Is your identity removed?

When you are ripped limb from limb, when your circuits are humiliated and exposed and fused to foreign capillaries, when your calculating face is carved off and he inserts a smacking of bloodied, mutilated human flesh and you cannot hope to ever be your normal self again -- then you can talk to me about fair comparisons!

[He exhales, his throat tight with tension.]

But until then? You have no idea. You have no damn idea about it, and don't you dare try to weaponize something you can't possible begin to understand!

[heartlessglitch]

[ Permeating silence from her end, for several long and calculating moments.

Finally: ]

I apologize, Doctor.