Sing'n in Binary: 47

Connecting to everyone’s neuralware, Aria once more revels in the nearly novel experience of no twinges as her freshly reinstalled systems operate without a hitch. 

The reinstall was certainly the best decision she made in this entire debacle. Only a tiny fraction of the hardened code was corrupted, and it was trivial to repair after a boot and full defragment run to clear snippets of bad code.

Unfortunately it seems like this is going to be the only easy part of today.

Because it denied her much needed  time to process everything.

From her perspective, the entire reboot occurred as if no time had passed at all. Counting only her uptime it’s been perhaps three hours since the scav den, and she’s having to catch up with a month’s worth of stressful and heavy topics on top of that.

But, everyone’s awake in the apartment, and they’re offering their time for her benefit to be caught up on everything. It’s the bare minimum to show up.

As eyes fall under her control one by one, Aria watches as everyone but Jinx and AK flinch back as her avatar layers itself on their vision. Jinx, because she’s watching the raw data flow though a temporary hole she’d made in her security.

And AK because he’s blind.

The AI glances at her friend, still duct taped to a chair.

Apparently he’d been disconnected for long enough that the manufacturer's system timeout triggered and shut all his other stuff down. So as everyone else looks at her avatar his eyes vaguely twitch about, sightless. 

They’d gotten all the ‘welcome back’s done with last night, and no one else seems willing to begin so, with a sigh, she clicks on some freshly connected speakers in the computer for AK’s benefit and begins to speak.

“Ok. Again, thank you all so much for getting me…. getting me back online.” She forces out the last part as some part of her is still upset and afraid in equal measure at being revealed, no matter how much she trusts her friends.

She takes a breath, inadvertently cutting off Rayo as he opens his mouth.

“But, before anything else, I have to know.”

She gestures at her friend’s heavily bruised face and bound body with baffled exasperation.

“Why?”

She looks around as everyone either maintains perfect eye contact or looks anywhere else.

Finally, after a few seconds of silence, AK opens his mouth.

“I–”

“He broke into my apartment, tried to smash your drives, and…” Jinx interrupts, jerking her head at ADMIN’s PC before trailing off and looking back at AK.

“Were you planning on flatlining me?”

Blind eyes widen as he shakes his head.

“No. I– I needed you alive to give the drive, and once the drive was destroyed there wasn't a point. Didn't want to do it either.”

Jinx nods and looks back at the avatar with a half shrug.

He…

He tried to kill her? He’d broken and threatened one of her friends at gunpoint to kill her?

Aria takes a step away from the netrunners chair.

“O… K… I’m not sure I can…” 

She trails off, closes her eyes, and begins to rock on her heels, withdrawing into herself to process this new information carefully.

Does the fact that he tried to kill her make her mad?

Yes.

But that’s just an emotional reaction to how what he did hurt her.

But it was an expected response so, as much as it hurts, the pain is lessened by the fact she was expecting it.

But she’s not blameless for this situation either, had she been honest things might have turned out differently.

But…

Aria sighs as she opens her eyes again.

“Alright.”

Everyone stares at her, expressions ranging from carefully placid to baffled.

“Alright? That’s it? The fuck do you mean alright?” Solei interjects, taking a step closer. “He tried to fucking flatline you and all you can give is a ‘shit happens?’”

The avatar flinches, stuttering in the render with sudden emotion before she hunches inward slightly.

“I didn't say I was happy about it. But he’s my friend, and I lied about being something very dangerous. I expected it to happen.” She says quietly.

The frank admission seems to catch Solei flat footed, staring angrily for a few more moments before seemingly coming to a decision and sitting down on the couch.

Rayo, after a considering look across the room, claps his hands together with a smile.

“Well! If that’s it, then I think we’re onto the practicalities of the situation."

Aria blinks, trying to figure out what he meant.

“Oh! Right! If you can get me a receipt or something I’ll pay everyone back for buying me all those parts.”

She’d almost forgotten about the money!

Ray’s smile turns a tad strained, as if realizing what he’s about to say might be unpleasant.

“Ah. No. That can be dealt with… later. I was meaning more assurances to ensure nothing like this… you know. To prevent any future–”

“He wants to make sure I can't try it again, or report you to netwatch.” AK interjects, flinching back slightly as the room becomes dead silent.

“Yes. That.” Ray says after a beat.

“That fucker isnt getting on this floor again.” Jinx chimes in as Aria falls silent. “I’d been slacking on keeping up my defenses for… a while. Then, when I started upgrading shit, door security was pretty far down on the risk table. I patched everything past spec last night, he’s not getting back in here.”

Someone else says something else, but the AI disregards the information as the looming threat for her entire life rears its head again.

Netwatch.

Aria stares at her friend’s blind eyes as she tries to figure out a solution to the issue.

Even if AK does want to kill her and nothing she can say would change his mind, it doesn't change the fact that she still cares about him, and she’s struggling to find any way to completely ensure he’d be unable to reach out and report her.

It’s not like they can just keep him here disconnected and tied up forever. Even beyond that being wrong it’s logistically impossible.

But there has to be a reason he didn't report her before, perhaps that reasoning will hold up now?

She takes a step forward and leans down despite the fact her voice is coming from a speaker across the room and he can't see her. 

“You’re not… you’re not going to tell netwatch… are you?”

AK shakes his head.

“Nah.””He won't." He and Ray talk over each other.

AK pauses for a moment, eyes darting around as if trying to see who spoke before he continues.

“They’d kill me. There’s a reason Netwatch’s anonymous tip line is a lie. They wipe anything that interacts with an unsanctioned AI. There are some rare exceptions, but I wouldn't be one of them.”

Aria stares at unpowered cybernetics, watching as organic muscles move a lump of metal and plastic with pupils completely dilated, trying to figure out if the information given is the truth, or if it’s factual information presented to further a plan to kill her.

“Are you sure?”

He nods, then a look of existential discomfort crosses his face.

“I… I regret it. I know you really shouldn't believe me when I say that. I’m not even sure if that feeling is real. But I do.”

Aria watches for a while longer. Waiting for some piece of information to click into place that will allow her to make the right choice, but there’s no good options here.

She knows she shouldn't trust him.

He gave her every reason not to trust him over the course of the past twelve hours.

But…

“Alright.”

She does.

Taking a step back, Aria looks back over to Rayo. A small portion of her attention pulled up her bank balance and staring at all her hard earned money she’d been so close to using to find ADMIN.

She sighs, a kind of frustrated melancholy at having to start at zero. A fact that would normally be devastating, made less impactful considering her past few hours. 

“I can pay everyone back for the parts right now, have the money. It was just in a private account so no one could access it until after I came online”

Her eyes are an abstraction, so she can see though other camera perspectives as Solei and Davis open their mouths with twin dismissive looks on their face, but each freeze as Rayo gives them a look.

He tilts his head slightly.

“If you want to hand over the money right now, that is your choice. But none of us are in urgent need of it, I think we’re all perfectly willing to allow a zero interest payment plan.” 

He pauses to gauge Aria’s opinion on the idea, seeing no objections he continues.

“Besides, I’d argue around a third of that was your money anyway, as it came from AK’s sales of your music.”

Aria glitches.

Dissolving into static for a moment, her avatar renders again right in front of Rayo with a cold expression on her face.

“Ẅhằtʔ”

Ray jerks back, surprise and a hint of fear quickly dropping beneath a neutrally affable mask.

“Ah. Were you unaware that he’d been selling your intellectual property?”

Aria glitches again, disappearing and rerendering in front of the netrunner’s chair and slamming her palms against the armrests, causing no sound.

“You’ve been selling my music?!”

AK flinches away from the sound of her voice, across the room.

“I–”

“How could you?”

“I– I don’t–”

“I trusted you!”

She tries to grab at his shirt, but his hand passes straight through and makes her even angrier.

“You sold my private music to strangers! For money?”

“I didn't think–”

She shoves herself away and turns her back, walking away.

“I can't even look at you right now!”

How could he have done this to her?! This has nothing to do with her nature as an AI!

She’d told him! 

She told him how important it was to her and he’d listened!

He’d taken something she’d given to him and sold it! Selling pieces of a soul that wasn't even his for a few eddies!

She glances back but immediately has to look away again as disgust bubbles up.

How– Why would he do something like this!?

Rayo gently coughs, prompting every eye to suddenly snap from Aria’s agitated pacing toward him.

Seeing every eye, seems to make him reassess the mood of the room, and he considers his words a bit more before speaking in a conciliatory tone.

“It’s not my scene, but I looked into it last night. People really like your sound. It’s gotten popular enough that people are sampling your work for their own stuff.”

Aria turns, looking at him with her avatar’s eyes.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

That’s not the point!

He took pieces of her and sold th–

She stops, noting how erratic and jittery her avatar appears in everyone’s render, then notes the black spikes in that static, and takes a deep breath.

It doesn't actually help, as she doesn't have a human autonomic nervous system, but the act of focusing on a simple task to compartmentalize anger is real. 

And apparently the placebo effect works on AI too.

So she takes another breath, closing her eyes as she pulls her avatar into line.

She just needs to hold it together for a few more hours, and then she’ll have time to decompress.

The AI opens her eyes and looks at her friend who she’d just yelled at for trying to help.

“...sorry. I– Sorry. I didnt…”

Rayo waves it off.

“S’all good choom, poor choice of timing. I’d made some bad assumptions and got bit for it, my fault.”

Aria is halfway through a nod before she shakes her head.

“No. This was me. Sorry.”

There’s a long silence as everyone stares at each other, waiting for someone else to take the lead of the conversation as the AI paces in an agitated circle in the center of the apartment, glancing occasionally at the subject of her ire.

Jinx breaks first.

“...So…” She starts, tapping her knee rhythmically with one hand as she opens a drawer with the other. “Do… Do you want him… gone?”

Aria slows to a stop, considering the idea. Looking at her friend as guilt and fear roll across his face in equal measure.

Yes. Some distance. 

She still believes him when he says he won't go to netwatch, giving herself a little time to process and figure out exactly what he’d done. But she can't even think with him just sitting there like–

Deep breath.

“Yes. Please.”

At her words, AK’s face drops as Jinx reaches into her waistband and pulls out a gun.

“Great. Could someone get some garbage bags from under the sink? I wanna wrap him up before shooting him. Less mess.”

Aria, stunned into silence for a few seconds as Jinx cocks the weapon, looks around for someone –anyone– else to shoot down this completely insane idea.

Instead, she sees a group of people looking vaguely uncomfortable, glancing between AK herself and Jinx.

It’s only when Jinx starts to walk toward the kitchen area herself does Aria snap out of her incredulous daze.

“Wh- No! What is wrong with you people!? You’re his friends! No one’s killing anyone!” 

Glancing at the gun, she disables the trigger mechanism for good measure.

“I just wanted to think for a little while! Why would I want to kill him?”

What is going on here!?

There’s an awkward pause as everyone in the room seems to want to say something, but refuses to be the first to say it.

“Do you all want to kill him?” She shouts, baffled.

There’s a half second pause before everyone begins to shake their head, sans Jinx, who has re-enabled the trigger mechanism, but turned the safety back on.

AK, for his part, still looks alarmingly pale, but the expression of abject terror on his face has turned to one of someone trying to be as small as possible.

Aria glances around the room again.

“Alright. For future reference. No one’s allowed to kill anyone! Got that?”

There’s a quarter second pause. Which is much too long for such a basic idea!

“Got it?!”

Everyone nods, finally.

With one last thorough look across every person in the room, Aria nods in return.

“Good, now AK, do you have enough money to get your neuralware back online?”

There’s a long pause.

“...Probably? Yes?”

Sighing, she turns to ask someone to cut him loose, then realizes he can't see.

She looks around again, at all the people who were –thirty seconds ago– perfectly willing to kill him.

“Can anyone, safely, take him to a clinic? I’ll pay for the time.”

And get a receipt to pay everyone the money she owes them, she cannot forget about that.

Davis raises his hand.

“I was already planning to take him home anyway. Easy side trip, so no need to pay.”

Aria stares at the impassive smile.

“...Alright. If you’re sure.”

“It’s fine choom.”

After another few seconds of cautious inspection of her friend, Aria finally agrees and AK is quickly cut loose. Having been pulled to his feet and guided out of the apartment, his departure seemed to be the linchpin preventing anyone from leaving. 

Because, as soon as the door closed with their departure, everyone else began clearing out as well. Rayo and Solei with a need to take a shower back home and a sudden backlog of work respectively. 

Within ten minutes of AK’s departure the other two clear out, each giving awkwardly hurried goodbyes, as if unsure how to exit the situation and choosing to end the awkward exchange as quickly as possible.

Soon enough, the door closes, and there's just two people in the room: Aria and Solei.

They both look at each other for a long moment, trying to figure out what to do next.

Aria, for her part, is desperately trying to figure out what parts of living with ADMIN can transfer, and finding very few of those skills work in this context.

Jinx coughs.

“I’ve got… work to do.” She says simply, gesturing at the recently vacated chair.

Aria nods.

“And I’ve got… other stuff to do too.”

Her friend nods back, walking over to her chair. But as she sits down and starts adjusting the seat settings, Aria allows an anxiety she doesn't want to acknowledge to come to the fore.

Because, as much as she cares about her friend, and no matter how much she trusts the proven liar in this moment...

“Are you worried?”

Jinx blinks, looking at the still rendered avatar in the center of the room.

“About what?”

“You know…” The AI sighs, rotating her wrist. “Netwatch.”

The netrunner snorts.

“No. The fucker was just being paranoid. He’s right that if they thought an AI was in here, they’d zero him. But they wouldn't believe him if he did.”

She turns her attention back to her seat, absentmindedly continuing as she pings systems with her neuralware.

“If a netwatch agent happens to look, they’ll see the security footage of some glitterhead stumbling through the front lobby. Then they read my complaint to management about an armed gunman breaching my door, trying to rob me, who got away.”

She extends some cooling cables and plugs them into ports at the base of her neck.

“They might look deeper and see that we already knew each other, but that only makes the desperate robbery and angry false report make more sense. As long as your music doesn't actually contain brain worms, we’re fine.”

Aria nods slowly, processing the logic and– what?

“Brain worms?”

Jinx waves her off.

“Paranoid no-sleep shit. Don't worry about it.”

Aria, desperately, wants to push further into the thought that her music contains brain worms, but as surprise and incredulity start to break the lid she’s been keeping on her feelings, she’s reminded of exactly how much the past twenty-four subjective hours have exhausted her.

So, filing the topic away to definitely come back to later, she sighs and gives an awkward wave goodbye.

“See ya.”

Jinx mirrors the wave.

“See ya.”

Then her eyes close, the access port to her neuralware closes, and suddenly Aria’s only perspective on the apartment comes from a 480p webcam.

Shutting down her camera rendering program, she allows the grassy hills of her home to fade into view once again.

Unfortunately, the cosmetic wrapping on her system is still deeply damaged, leading to torn geometry and errors that break the illusion of reality as far as the eye can see.

Checking over her repair bots, she's pretty sure they’ll be able to handle it, so she opens a web browser for the first time in months.

Netrunning sounds… uniquely unpleasant right now. But she needs to find out how well known her music actually is, how far it’s spread.

If nothing else for the simple fact of knowing the true extent is to what AK did.

Rendering a mouse and keyboard to avoid any suspicious mouse movements, she starts navigating the absolute surface layer of the net. Identifying music forums and popular chatrooms with a song recommendation section.

Aria takes a deep breath as she hovers over the first link in the first place she chose to search.

She has to know.

---

A/N: well Here's the new status quo. Hope ya'll enjoy because all the diologue has made this a LONG one.

Ta-Ta All!