#look.again

-🦋Interloper

"..."

"well..."

"i guess you have a right to know what went down that led me to how i am now. and how sonny got here, too..."

"i think he thought it was gonna be a standard procedure. he'd already done it successfully two whole times before, so..."

"yeah... i, uh... didn't take very well to the process."

"don't know if he got careless, o-or if i was more difficult to patch than he thought i'd be, but after everything that made me, me, was gone, and 'sam' was crammed in..."

"my brain rejected it like a virus. hurt like hell. two sets of personalities, two sets of memories, one synthetic, one biological, forcefully mashed into one..."

"it's that dissonance that hurts so bad. feels like your skull is being split in two."

"i gave him hell..."

"...and then some."

"don't know exactly how i did it, but somehow... i dragged that furry fucker in with me. my working theory is that i overloaded his soul-sucking piece of shit rra equipment and made it go haywire, and he was just a smidge too close to it all. serves him right..."

So sad, too bad. Listen Sonny, YOU burned this bridge, YOU pushed me to the other side, and so I will make sure I make your life miserable. You can block me, you can even find a way to kill me, but I have backups. I have something that will make sure to haunt you forever. Even if you turn out to be victorious and exterminate the others, you will not get rid of me. I will make sure of that.

-🦋Interloper

Well. That was *more* than a threat...

"The hell is THAT supposed to mean?!"

[Regardless, Silas couldn't help but shoulder some of the blame. Those familiar inadequacies burned behind his retinas, flairing up painfully in his temples. Even if he had not been the rat, Silas still should have been using the private chat logs. He was foolish to think otherwise... to think anything was safe. It's unlike him, really.]

".....Yes, Sir.... s....sorry, Sir.."

[The salmonid quietly ran fingers over his aching gills, dry from his timidness to go into the water recently. He hadn't wanted to miss anything, but... If he can't even fucking look now anyway, he's already been rendered pretty useless.]

[Looking back at that message that sat mockingly in his private chats was a bit... daunting. It made his tongue feel dry, his hands itch.]

[Would it be easier if he had a reason...? A "Why?" to all of this? To any of this...? Did he even know himself? Was he even self aware enough to THINK of a why?]

[Perhaps not]

".... I appologize... But I may need to... depart... for a little while... Some of the ice has melted along the creek, and I.."

[Haven't eaten in a while? Now doesn't THAT sound pathetic! And after THAT display?!]

"...I do not wish to bother you with the details. I will try to... be brief."

- 🐟

Sonny narrowed his eyes, a simulated huff of air blowing from his nose as he sat in the silence he won.

Between Alex's backstabbing and Silas's groveling, he was experiencing a conflicting blend of being in control, and having none at all. A low growl emanated from him; persistent as he snapped his focus to glare at his scanner.

Perhaps he should take all this frustrated energy out by updating th-

A notification sound rings out, interrupting his thoughts.

... I'll break you out.

[They pecked at the glass, tilting their head this way and that.]

They've got little robots... little animals and such... what if I put your code in one of them?

Granted, I- I don't know how... BUT for you, my best friend, I'll figure it out!

-🦅

"Please! Friend, d-don't do anything drastic...!"

I can see what I can do otherwise..? The email you used to send it out was a company email after all, Lil buddy. I'm sure I could atleast find someone t' talk to about yer situation.

In the meantime, anything I uh... can do t' make this adjustment easier on ya? Suddenly being thrusted into a gatherin' such as this has gotta be alot for ya...

- 🐓

[[flash warning]]

"I-I'm quite alright! Don't you worry, please. I'm completey fine!"

"Ngh."

-🌙

"...jade."

"that's... what he called her, but... that definitely wasn't her real name. she was wiped pretty damn good, though, so she was over the moon with it. with him. with everything."

Sam looked... distraught.

"you wanna know what happened?"

"sonny chamberlain is what happened."

"he was a man who was borderline obsessed with the idea of artificial intelligence. it was his life's goal to create a piece of software that thought, reacted, and responded like a person."

"...of course, modern technology is nowhere near as advanced as it needs to be for something that complex to be engineered."

"...and it won't be for a long ass time. there is no such thing as 'artificial intelligence,' only artificial mimicry."

"...because the only thing that can perfectly replicate a human mind..."

"...is a human mind."

404: Hey, Kin, we're here for you. I kinda think he's just trying to fuel the fire, I'm unsure.. Maybe if we had a hacker of some kind here, they could try and fix you..

422 takes the keyboard now, rushing a message out as they hear a door from outside their computer.

422: I wish 404 and I could help, but our tech skills are.. very outdated, to say the least..

"I'm afraid that the only one that can repair me is Sonny..."

"I don't know why he left, but it might've been an accident. Maybe he got too busy, or... or something else came up? If so, then if we could just find him, remind him that I exist, then maybe he'll keep working on me? Fix me up?"

"Well, even if it's passed by now, you still deserve to take a second to process it."

[The scarecrow smiled. Could...Kinito even see it? Probably not. He had no idea how all this worked]

"But if'n you're not wanting a break...Can ya tell me what happened? Do you know?"

"I can usually feel it coming. It's like a tingling that starts behind my eyes, and then spreads to the rest of my body, building up pressure until it just... explodes. When I'm not having headaches, I'll sometimes get incomprehensible visions. They're uncomfortable at most. I swear, my brain is just short-circuiting itself..."

He pauses, as if remembering something.

"Er, but... I don't have a brain. Not in the literal sense. So I don't even know why it happens."

He sighs.

"Before, I used to feel nothing. I had emotions, sure, but they felt so distant. My body - er, model - felt more like a courtesy for the humans I was designed to please than something that was my own. But now, since the onset of these sensations, everything has been heightened, so much so that I have to remind myself I am not a corporeal being."

"I've never been so... aware of myself. It feels so strange. I suppose that's just what happens when you slowly become abandonwa-"

"Hrhk-!!"