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[a_shadow]

I.

I'm not asking for anyone's help making this decision, but I've got a big one that dropped in my lap, and I'm thinking about the whole process now. You know—dealing with the whole 'this is going to affect me for the rest of my life' thing.

It's not fun.

I think I know what I'm going to do, but pulling the trigger, so to speak...it sucks.

II.

[ Several minutes later, a for sale ad is sent out from Tex's network address: ]

For sale: 2 android-style robots. These are empty shells without any sort of intelligence included. 1 suit of Freelancer armor. Cobalt blue. Sniper rifle not included. Prices on these items are negotiable. Please make a reasonable offer.

Comments

[notglitching]

[Noise skips, just a little, but there's a pause before Rinzler types back.]

User body: glitched.

[Why get rid of her own?]

[a_shadow]

Yeah. You're not wrong.

[ She frowns a little, looking slightly off to the side. ]

I like some things about being in a user body, is all, Rinzler. I know it's not ideal.

[notglitching]

Weaker. Slower. Self-degrading. [And, apparently...] Fails to support code transfers.

[It's her shell. Her decision. But liking or not, Rinzler doesn't understand at all how any program with her function and her skills could manage to run permanently in that.]

[a_shadow]

Goddammit, I know. I know, okay?

[ She's struggling with the decision all over again now. And it just comes down to the pleasures of the flesh vis a vis the strengths of her robot.

She frowns, biting the edge of her lip. ]

If I wasn't with my boyfriend, I'd probably stick with the robot.

[notglitching]

[For all that Rinzler never shows his face, he's not particularly subtle. It's easy to see the momentary pause as he registers Tex's reasons... and to hear the stutter, right after, as he represses a really? Of course users interface, the same as programs. Rinzler's even aware of the basic differences in how, though her preference for biology continues to elude him.

But Rinzler is a weapon, Rinzler is his code. And preference or no, the concept of rating any kind of pleasure over what he is, over being able to fight and win and move like he was made to...

He shakes his head.]

Not a user.

[a_shadow]

No, you're right. I'm not a user.

[ The fact that this relationship clouds her decision-making process so thoroughly is frustrating as hell. If she didn't have Ryuuzaki in her life, choosing to remain in her robot would be a trivial decision. She'd donate her body to science, or something, and just give in to her AI abilities.

She sighs. ]

I'm at least going to sell the spare body and the armor. I don't need them anymore.

[notglitching]

[She's not. She's not, and he doesn't like seeing her decision tree shift to something so... subjective. (So weak.) It's not his shell, and when choosing for himself has so rarely been an option, Rinzler certainly wouldn't presume to make that kind of choice for someone else.

But he doesn't like it. Tex is a program, one of the first he'd met here. Tex is stable, is reliable, is a skilled combatant and trustworthy ally. She's supposed to be.

He doesn't know what this would make her.]

Acknowledged.

[a_shadow]

[ She nods shortly. What else is there to say? It's not until later that she will end up making her agreement with Adrien to keep the bodies in his care. So she sighs and looks into the TAB at Rinzler's helmet before snapping off the feed. ]