Open Action: Fleet Wide

[killedwithlove]

Who: Cole and EVERYONE
Broadcast: No
Action: EVERY ship in the Fleet, bar Marsiva, Three Twins and Tourist (Though you can easily find him on another ship if you're from one of those)
When: First week of the month?

[This is a thing Cole does.

He travels the Fleet a lot, from ship to ship, meeting people, talking to people, hanging out. He sees people he knows and meets new ones, or ones he just didn't encounter before

He wants to help everyone. Which means meeting them first. Or finding them. Doing that might involve poking through the ships, even if he really shouldn't. Or going through personal belongings. Sorry about that. He's curious.

And armed. It is worth mentioning he's got a pair of wickedly sharp fighting knives on his back. Sorry about that as well.]

Comments

[killedwithlove]

[He watches the young man closely. He seems real, but there's still something tickling on him, feathering on the edges of his awareness.]

I'm Cole.

I'm not like other people, either.

[recopy]

[Ah, he'd been going for a handshake but that gets left hanging in the end--he drops his hand awkwardly, as Cole responds, but in retrospect maybe he shouldn't be so surprised. 'Not like other people either'...?]

Hm, that's right...you did mention that you don't sleep, huh? [Cole's watching him closely and Megaman is peering back with just as much interest in turn, now, curiosity slowly overriding his confusion at pretty much everything else about this conversation so far.] Other people would probably find that kind of weird too...but you look pretty human. [Beat.] --And I do too, I guess! That makes two of us, then.

[He shrugs, slightly, smiling a bit sheepishly.]

I'm--I'm a program, actually, a NetNavi. And this body isn't really human, either...but it's not mine. Somebody put me in this when I got here, I think. What about you?

[killedwithlove]

[Cole doesn't do handshakes. Sorry about that. He's not sure about touching people, like many empathic creatures.]

I had to look human to help. So I looked like the human I was helping. He was the only reference I had at the time. So I look like him. The other Cole.

I don't know what a program is. Or a NetNavi.

Is it your body? How it should be?

I'm a spirit. But I made myself have a body.

[recopy]

[IT'S COOL HE UNDERSTANDS IT'S NOT EVERYBODY'S THING....old polite habits just die hard, as they do. But wait--]

O-Oh, a spirit? [Well, he hadn't quite expected that, actually--and without thinking he's shrinking a bit against the doorway all of a sudden, eyes widening a bit. A spirit...he didn't think he'd run into one all the way out here. He didn't think--] That's--that's pretty neat!

[No don't make this weird, keep talking, don't look nervous, right--]

It's...well, this body does look like me, I suppose? They got that right...but it's all metal and gears on the inside. Robot frame. [He rubs at one of his arms.] I'm not--programs aren't usually outside like this! I usually live on the Net, in computers and things...like your comm device, you know? Programs are what keeps those things operating and working. And I help people navigate them, too--that's why I'm a Navi. [And he folds his arms now, considering Cole a bit uncertainly.] Do you think maybe that has something to do with why I'm...muted, or whatever it was? To you?

[killedwithlove]

[Cole can't read it very well, but he knows fear. He steps back and seems to shrug into himself, making himself smaller and less threatening.]

Of Compassion. I'm a spirit of compassion. I help people.

[He considers this and thinks of a large stone body, powered in ways he doesn't understand, but it makes sense, a soul in a not flesh body.] Like a golem! Shale was a soul, but her body was stones and metal.

I don't think I really understand, but I can accept that explanation. You're a computer spirit and now you have a body like Shale did.

[recopy]

[Yes, it's fear of a sort--fairly low-key for now, thankfully, more nervous than anything. He's never talked with a spirit for this long, before, much less without even realizing it, and he still really doesn't know much about spirits at all...when you don't know much about something you tend to worry even more, about the possibilities. What if a spirit could tell, somehow, that Megaman the program is really just Hub--a human's soul anchored down in data and code? Can real-world ghosts pick up virtual ghosts?

He just doesn't know. And that's what makes him nervous, and has him half-expecting some kind of admission on Cole's part...but it never comes, and the moment passes. The conclusion Cole does come to is really more of a comparison than a determination, as far as he can tell--and he can work with that. (The step back on Cole's part kind of helps too, actually, though he doesn't realize it.) Megaman relaxes a bit, half-smiling at the words.]

Ah--yeah, sort of like that, I guess! But no stones here, just mostly metal... [He supposes Cole doesn't have robots where he's from--Cole also isn't the first.] And, yes, that's...that works too, I think. Computer spirit...

[Alright that does actually strike a bit alarmingly close to home, but--]

Hm, spirit of compassion sounds a lot nicer, though. I suppose you help people with all kinds of things? I bet you must be really good at it by now.

[killedwithlove]

[A linguistic difference. A spirit is not a ghost. Very distinctly, a spirit is something that has never been human and never will be entirely human.

Cole is trying to understand it. He doesn't, but he's close enough to understanding that he can accept it without more pushing.]

Computer spirit. You have a name that isn't Computer. I have a name as well. Not Compassion, Cole. Because I'm a person. Sort of. I try to help people! I don't always get it right.