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──────  “    i can hear you.    ”

this is an independent roleplay blog for   root   as portrayed by amy acker on person of interest, (   she / her  )   for a quick summary, root is a hacker   &   former killer for hire turned  acolyte  of an artificial intelligence called the machine.   she views the machine as god-like   &  as a She.   root is Her analogue interface,   doing work at Her behest.    this is a selective blog with slow activity     &     frequently features nsfw themes.  feel free to like this post at any time if you are interested in writing     &      i’d be more than happy to get us started off in some way.  i look forward to interacting !   affiliated with   @itsasset.  

You take a long breath. ( Not that it helps. )

—And have to release it right away. Could even be misinterpreted as a laugh, to someone who doesn’t know you. Thought you heard her say she was going to cook, which shows exactly how far this unhinged fever dream of a scenario has gone. 

But whatever you were planning to say doesn’t make it out because your senses are suddenly all on alert, and it’s nothing to do with the way she’s pressing up against you. 

If there’s one thing you know, it’s when to follow orders. 

And you ( unfortunately ) know her well enough to recognise that tone. Despite whatever this crazy cover story of hers is, apparently, 

❝We’re supposed to know each other.❞

( Bit slow on the draw, but in your defense, the kinds of surprises she springs on you tend to be of the shoot quick variety. )

❝I mean—- no– I haven’t. You’re, uh, welcome to come over for dinner. At my place.❞

You must look like a deer in the headlights. There’s a reason you never did any long-term undercover work, okay?

❝I’ve been thinkin’ about it all week.❞

she blended in effortlessly into her surroundings,      softened         &       commercially packaged for the five pm crowd dwelling around them.         she reached the top shelf without needing to lift herself from the ground,       pulling the box of macaroni toward herself      &      hiding the condescending smile that hitched at her lips once shaw finally started to catch on.       if their survival didn’t impinge on their fooling Samaritan of their budding romance she would be enjoying the way shaw’s entire body was resisting this charade like a rejected organ transplant a lot more.

her smirk started taking full shape as an inch of that burden on her tensed shoulders lifted.       “  atta girl, ”    she murmured like an breath she didn’t know she was holding,    relief expelling with it.        she avoided eye contact with shaw as she placed the box into the basket    &    set her worry aside in favour of a flushed   &    flustered smile typical for these sorts of admissions. 

then she was onto the rest of the items on her imaginary list ,     walking past shaw down the aisle      &      turning her head with an eagerly edging smile    &    words that struggled to form around their giddiness,    “  ---   well,   i promise-   you won’t regret it.    it’s  actually an old family recipe of mine.   ”   

once she rounded the aisle      &      effortlessly avoided the traffic of the post work shopping carts,   the smile threatening her cheekbones fell into more of a pout,    slowing her step for shaw’s sake.        now that they were out of eye   &   earshot she could speak a little more candidly with her acting partner,      “  you know  i always thought you’d have a little more experience in the dating arena under your belt,   sameen.    ”    

The words cybersecurity specialist don’t even raise a flag until you hear her voice. Just goes to show how long it’s been since you so much as thought of her. 

She still looks at you like she has any say at all over you, but you’re nothing if not an expert at ignoring what everyone else thinks about you. There’s no other reason why you don’t look back her way for the rest of the conversation besides the focus you need to charm your way into inviting your target upstairs— why would there be? It’s not like her being here bothers you or anything. 

—Even if you get the impression of her eyes heavy on the slit of your dress and the fingers you practically invited there. 

You shake it off and focus on the work. Of all the hackers in the world, you just thought that it’d be anyone else taking over the nerdy parts of this interrogation. Didn’t get the impression she was taking the change in your relationship well enough to be dropping in anytime soon.

But you trust her. 

Which means you’re good for a team up with a former- teammate as long as she can keep it together. 

–That’s what you’re on the lookout for when you complete your third sweep of the floor. 

❝All clear. Looks like the party’s still going full swing downstairs.❞

One thing’s for sure, you’d never have dreamed you’d get this far in without a comment on your supposed date and leaving her tied to a chair alone with Root. 

It’s weird, but you’re not complaining. 

❝Any luck with the encryption?❞

she’d lurked in the corner of the room,        feeling the clean light of her five-star surroundings clarifying the angles of her face        (      &     she suddenly wished it were much darker in here    ---- despite always being perfectly comfortable working in broad daylight,    in plain sight.   ) 

she’d slipped inside the hotel room with the master key card she had stolen from the front desk on her way in,        shaw already two floors down by the time she set foot inside.           she’d made nice with some CEO downstairs for plausible deniability later while shaw was busy gift wrapping her new friend,           her slowly edging smile sorely mistaken for something flirtatious as he eyed the expanse of skin along her bare shoulders.       lucky for him he wasn’t worth her time let alone a drop of the chemical arsenal she’d brought along with her tonight.

she’d been staring ahead at nothing when she suddenly heard shaw’s voice filter in through her right ear instead of Hers,       she tried to douse the sudden rise of devotion coming up her throat like an sickness.              she unfurled her crossed arms,            “  you shouldn’t have,    ”          she murmured as she finally looked over the woman whose skin she was supposed to slip into----     she felt a new life calling to her like a deprived breath of air      &       then she was taking up space in front of the bound woman.        but instead of paying her a second glance she simply pressed a smile onto her mouth as she carefully lifted her purse into her hands,            nudging through all of the puzzle pieces of her life she would take for herself.      

a sheen of concentration washed over her features as she continued to peruse her new props,     “       i hope you don’t mind,     i just need to borrow a few things so i can start to undo this mess you helped create.    ---    including your name.   ”        was she just oblivious or perfectly aware about the part she was playing  ?     it didn’t really matter.       &     she didn’t give the life she was stealing a second thought as she begun digitally assigning the woman a new identity using her own phone that she’d pulled from her purse,       standing not two feet from her as she sounded against the gag.        

“   &   since I can’t have you interfering,    i’ve booked you in for a nice break at the nearest hospital.     nine-one-one are going to come pick you up in the morning,    ”      still,     barely a glance was given her way as she embedded the syringe into her neck,     her less than comforting smile the last thing she would see before her month long coma      (   ---   not that she’d remember any of this,        the concoction she’d brewed up especially for her would make sure of that.  )     but it could be worse---- she’d get her identity back once she was finished with it.        

she took that moment to finally respond back to the woman waiting on a reply,     breathing out as she took her time capping her needle    &    lifting her new purse,    leaving her own behind,         “   not yet,    but I’m on my way down.     we should leave so I can start erasing the feeds.    ”     s he’d rather spend half a day cracking this encryption in some dingy diner than spend more than five minutes pulling it from the source itself,      dirtying her hands with the spill fragile parts that made up a life.         the heat that would sing through her when it was just her   &     human mind     &    a body to manipulate had been absent as of late----    maybe she was just getting bored.

Muscle memory works a lot faster than conscious thought. That’s part of why you’re so good at your job- your former job— one of the three jobs you currently juggle. Your body tenses up, ready to respond under threat of the aggravation she personifies.

—All before you process the sight of her coming towards you. It’s almost too absurd to take in, the poster girl for techno-whateverthefuck-ism standing beside pasta sauce. Unfortunately for you, it’s not funny enough to do anything about the tension headache that’s about to get a lot worse.

One of these days, you’re going to blow a vein from exposure alone. Couldn’t think of a worse way to die.

( And it looks like today might be the day, with the way she’s cosying up to you in broad fluorescent light. )

It’s too late now, but you still turn your face from the CCTV’s view out of instinct. You know she’s funny about these things, but you’d never pegged her as the type to take a teammate down with her when tempting death. Luckily, her antics also make for good cover.

❝Root—❞

You don’t care what kind of kick she gets out of your tone of voice. Self-preservation is a little more important right now.

❝Are you trying to get us both killed?❞

her grip remained on the shopping basket tying the two of them together,    her smile the only thing visible to the camera she could feel blinking over her shoulder. 

“   --  just  trying to help pick a few things up for dinner,   actually.     since  i’ll be the one doing the cooking  tonight,   ”   &   while her voice teetered on the edge of light    &   playful,      something in the corners of her eyes conveyed that she was cruising miles ahead on a freight train,     waiting as shaw attempted to catch up. her hand fell onto shaw’s arm,       keeping them wedged in close contact    &   out of the camera’s prying eyes   (   thanks to the way shaw was seething beneath her   )----      “   i’ll explain later,   sameen,   ”   she intoned under her breath,    her mouth still brushing her cheek.           her hand sliding higher as it took in the shape of the tensed muscles beneath her shirt was all It would be able to see.        &   then she was stepping away,        using the moment to heft the basket into her arms     &     out of shaw’s reach.          she begun surveying the selection on the shelves with her searching gaze      &    rising chin    before throwing the disbelieving amusement of someone making an absurd realisation in their own mind over at shaw,     “   unless---    you  haven’t   changed your mind   about finally having me over,    have you,   sam  ?   ”     &    while there was a vague reference to hurt lurking in the surface of her gaze,    her expectantly raised eyebrows were a signal for shaw to play along.