Dawn was breaking, but as he'd expected, there was no sunlight to speak of. Instead, rain lashed at Rogan's car as he sat, reviewing everything he'd collected that night. He'd been working for hours, and sorted most of it, but now he found himself watching through the recording of his navi's progress. He was struggling with it. Lyntael had still given no sound or word, in all the time he'd worked. She hadn't come out of the PET to watch him, or passed any comment on any of the material he'd been going through, and as he watched her interactions with the hostile navi in the lab, a part of him was beginning to understand, at least a little, why.
It was only his second time watching this handful of minutes; with most video footage, net or real world, he scanned once, watched closely once, then reviewed once, to make sure nothing was missed. He hadn't truly believed what he'd watched the first time, and it was an effort to remind himself that what he was watching were artificial simulations, not real humans. That they might interact that way, so viscerally, when there wasn't even anyone around to see their performance, truly surprised him.
Unconscious, his eyes flicked away to another part of the screen and one finger lowered the volume as Vigilance began taunting his navi again. After a moment, Rogan realised what he'd done and turned the recording back, restoring the sound and making himself watch it again, more closely. The male navi's voice cut across the output once more.
"Do you want to know who the real monster is, in this picture, Little Lyntael?" As Rogan watched the navi's appalling behaviour, he reminded himself again; they were just programs not people. It wasn't real. "No, I'm not the real monster... I look at you, beautiful, intricate, detailed... I look at you, girl, and even I can see that whoever made you poured their whole heart and soul into it. Whoever made you really loves you. Or did, once. Not any more it would seem." Rogan felt his teeth clench as he watched and listened. Eric certainly loved his little creation, and still did... that much was clear. The difference was just that she was not his brother's navi any longer. "So if you want to see the real monster in this picture, then you ought to look at whatever son of a dog had you, and then let you wind up all alone" Rogan looked away, then made himself look back. AI or not, the words stung. "All alone, here... with me." Rogan stopped the recording and put the PET down beside him for a moment. Programs simulating. Nothing more. He knew it was true, however difficult watching the recording might be... but why did the other navi's words sting so much? It was all simulation, both his, and Lyntael's. He hadn't caused any real person to be hurt or frightened by his actions, hadn't harmed or traumatised anyone. He took a few deep breaths and reached for his PET again.
"No! Please no... stay back, don't touch me! Don't touch me!!" Lyntael's voice, crying out, made him freeze. He'd stopped the recording, but in doing so the screen had returned to viewing the internal net space of the PET, and Lyntael's little room. She was lying, curled up inside the rectangle of cloth she'd placed against one wall, and writhed, rolling and thrashing. She's fallen 'asleep', apparently. As she cried out again and whimpered Rogan winced before he caught himself. He hadn't hurt anyone, or done anything to cause harm to any real humans... and yet here was Lyntael, having nightmares, all alone and with no awareness that anyone was around to see her. Eric would kill him if he knew.
He still had to comb through the rest of the recording, but he didn't relish the review of what was still to come. It only got worse. With a sigh, he decided that now was as good a time as any to take a break and deal with his navi.
"Lyntael, wake up. You're..." He hesitated over the word, but bit the bullet. "You're dreaming Lyntael. Wake up." Her thrashing stopped, and after a moment or two her eyes flickered. When she sat up, he could see fresh tears streaking her face. She looked up at him, but didn't stand at once, like she normally might have. Instead she curled her knees up, and wrapped her hands around them, dropping her eyes again as though she didn't want to meet his.
"I tried my best, sir. I- I'm sorry I broke your cover. I was so scared, and there was so much pain." She was rocking slightly, staring down at the ground. "I know I.. I should have... I-if I'd just let..." Her voice cracked and she broke into tears again, hiding her face. He couldn't make himself reprimand her for not speaking clearly. It was just too difficult a thing to do right at that moment. He knew what she was trying to say, though, and he found himself torn. The first reaction, his gut instinct upon hearing her words, was horror; horror and shame that she should think she ought to have allowed what seemed to be happening, just for the sake of buying him a few more minutes...
On the other hand, his more rational mind reminded him that however difficult it was to not respond to her affectations, this was not a human being, and it wasn't a real world scenario; in pure tactics, yes, if the other AI was hung up on its own quirks enough to toy with her, and waste time, she should have let it. But then, he was the one who had pulled her out. It was his fault, in the end; if he hadn't reacted so emotionally to a pair of AIs, then he would have had his extra minutes.
"I didn't want to let you down, sir, I promise I didn't. I just... I couldn't. Not... not that, please." Her arms trembled more as she made more attempts at stumbling apologies and explanations, but that didn't address what he wanted to know.
"Hush. Lyntael, listen to me. I've reviewed the recordings, and I know that you did all you could. We succeeded, and you did everything I needed you to do. I do not fault you for anything that happened." Now she looked up at him, eyes red, as though she found it hard to believe what he said. He watched as her eyes searched him, until, eventually, she swallowed, taking a few deep breaths and stood up. She took a moment to straighten the skirt that didn't need straightening, then walked, a little unsteady, through to the main area. The view switched to follow, then fuzzed as her little hologram slipped out of the PET and stood on its screen to look up at him more closely. She opened her mouth, but stopped, hesitating. Rogan waited as she took a few more breaths, clenched and unclenched her fists, and turned about, taking several steps back and forth. She stopped with he back to him, and her head down.
"Why? Why did you let him do that to me? Why didn't you do anything, or say anything? Why did you leave me to him, like that, just... alone. He almost... if I hadn't... if I hadn't revealed you already, he would have... and you would have just... let him. Why? Why!?" Her voice had risen gradually, each question growing higher and more urgent than the last as she went. She turned, meeting his gaze again with eyes that pleaded with him for some sort of answer. "How could anyone do that to someone? How could you do that to me?" He'd never heard her actually grow heated at him before, but while she demanded an answer, he found he didn't have one.
The rational answer was there, but it stuck in his throat when he thought about saying that to her face. The other navi's words taunted him, mocking in the back of his mind. The feeling that had been sliding around in his chest since he rescued her reared up now, and he recognised it as guilt. Anger lashed back just as quickly, though, beating it back down. He had no reason to feel guilty at all. It was absurd, and playing along with her displays was foolish. She was good enough that his instincts responded to her behaviour, but that didn't mean it was real or a justified response; it wasn't. It was stupid to feel guilt about inanimate lumps of code.
"I did what I needed to do, Lyntael! And you did as you needed to do in order to assist me in obtaining my end. Nothing more. I would expect the same of any task I set you to!" It was only after he finished that he realised he had snapped the words almost loud enough to be considered a shout. Lyntael had shrank back from him, stumbled and fallen as she shied away. To his surprise, though, she wasn't cowed, just shocked. The glare of her eyes hadn't faltered and she shouted back at him without even picking herself up.
"You don't really believe that! You aren't that cold, and you aren't that cruel! I know you aren't! Eric says you're not, not underneath... and... and I believe him!" Even her anger was borderline tearful at the moment, but the words made him flinch. Eric still thought well of him, deep down; it would have been a warming surprise to learn, if he hadn't had to hear it as a contrast to how badly his navi thought he was treating her. The moment of silence was all she needed to keep going, though, and she did, slowly getting to her feet.
"He says you're a good person, and you're just pretending to be cold and callous. I believe him, but it's a really, really good act, sir. It really is!" She gave her head an angry shake. "I want to help you, Rogan. I want to do everything I can for you. I just don't know what else I can do. I.. I can't even..." Whatever she had been thinking to say, she quickly changed her mind. "I can't even make myself any new clothes to wear, the way you keep me! These are all I have, and have you seen these underwear? They're indecent! But will you give me permission to modify them at all? No! Why are you doing all this, Rogan? What are you even getting out of being so cruel to me!?"
Having worked herself up, Lyntael was panting heavily now, fists clenched as she stared up at him. Now that she was out of words she closed her mouth, a stunned look flashing across her face. If she was as shocked as Rogan himself felt, he wouldn't be surprised: hearing her shout at him like that was something he had never expected from the tiny navi. She was clearly wanting a proper answer from him, but nothing would actually come that seemed like the right thing to say. To his shame, he broke her gaze first.
"It wasn't a deliberate attempt to expose you to that, Lyntael. To be honest, I wasn't even aware you were capable of... those sorts of activities." As an attempt to diffuse things, he knew it was a bad move as soon as he'd said it. She gasped softly, the anger faltering under a hurt expression instead.
"Of course I... I mean, I want to... One day, I want... I haven't, obviously, but, someday I..." As she stuttered, a hot blush flared across her cheeks. "Of course I can! Maybe I'm 'just' your navi, but I'm still a woman!" Hardly that... Rogan bit his tongue before the thought could find his lips. He modified it a bit into some attempt to retrieve his poor words.
"I meant, Lyntael, that since my brother has given you the body of a young girl, too young for such activity, I assumed that he had also been reticent on such features." He blinked a few times. They'd gotten far off tack. "This isn't a conversation I intend to have, Lyntael, but if my brother saw fit to give you all of the problems that human women have to deal with on a regular basis, then he is a crueler man than I." Rogan took a deep breath and sighed. "Now. I'm glad that you're apparently feeling much better. If you can shout at me, then you certainly haven't suffered any lasting damage. I need to get back to work, though. That navi let his tongue slip quite a few times while he was taunting you. It is thanks to you that I may well learn something vital, Lyntael, but I must go through it and make sure I miss nothing. Lyntael had cringed when he mentioned reviewing her recordings further.
"I... Rogan, sir, I really don't want to see or hear any of that again. Please." He looked down at her, and, worn out as he was with everything, found himself relenting.
"Alright. Back in your PET then; I'll run the files externally and you can occupy yourself with something else. I'll call you when I've finished."
"Thankyou, sir." Her hologram froze, then disappeared a moment later as the girl herself disappeared back inside, leaving Rogan alone with his thoughts and trying to put together what exactly had just happened. It certainly hadn't been the conversation he had expected to have. The next thing he did, however, was not to bring up the files he'd been scanning before, but rather to begin examining the internal settings of the PET itself. In truth, he'd never actually looked into them in very much detail, but something Lyntael had said had made him think about it.
Sure enough, a proper inspection showed him that most of the device's settings had several different levels of permissions; they were all set currently to operator only, but the other options allowed permission for modification or action to be dual permission, for both operator and navi, or even to navi only. With a small shrug he shifted most of them over to dual permission instead. If nothing else, it would be interesting to see what, if anything the girl did with it.
Now, on with the real work. Uncomfortable and troubling as it was, Rogan retrieved the recorded net space files he'd been scanning, and picked up again, gritting his teeth through the unpleasantness of it a few more times to make sure nothing the cocky navi let slip was missed.
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((Sub-Plot Complete!))
((Lyntael Moving to =>
Yoka Net))
