Despite it being dinnertime, the cafeteria is far from pushing capacity. The Diadem holographic display is surprisingly light on current events precisely because, right now, there aren't any, and most on-site Avatars employees are busily working away in offices and taking their meal by delivery if they're even bothering to eat at all in the middle of the emergency.
The few robots wandering around the cafeteria don't reflect this level of tension, however. Unlike the "cute, minimalist" look of the security robots and the sleek look of the tour bots, the serving robots touring the conference center area and cafeteria are designed with "making an impression on guests" in mind, and hence are styled to resemble various of the more popular Avatar designs, while several representative Augment props are hanging on walls or column supports throughout the area.
On an upper tier, in a privacy booth overlooking the main floor, a white-furred dog-humanoid sits strumming a stylized guitar (though the sound is muted by the privacy screen), watching the minimal activity and doing a poor job of NOT looking as if he's keeping a watch out for someone or something to drop by the cafeteria.
"I wonder if they've restocked the ice cream yet," Tracy mumbles, as she shows Jason the way in.
"If you keep eating when you're feeling down, you're going to inflate like a balloon, you know," Jason points out as he meanders into the cafeteria, his hands stuffed into his pockets. He's still without his jacket, but at least he didn't wear the tool belt.
"I burn a lot of calories when I run," Tracy notes. Without her hairband, her hair is half-hiding her face when she slouches. "There's Cadena. I recognize that ax-guitar."
Cadena pokes his nose out of the booth and over the upper-tier railing. His ears perk when he sees Jason, then flick as he looks a bit inwardly emotionally contested (or perhaps just embarrassed at being spotted so quickly). For a moment, he looks between the buffet area, his hand-truck of items he's hauling around (it smells of freshly-washed laundry), and then decides to take his chances as he abandons it for a bit and leans over the railing. "Mr. Edwards!" he stage-whispers down from the upper tier. "I've saved a spot for you!" As if there weren't more than enough open spaces already.
Jason glances towards the dog-and-his-guitar. "I'm not sure I really want to know why ... " he starts to say to Tracy, " ... and it seems no rest for the weary. I guess I should see what he needs in a few minutes." He holds up his right hand while he heads towards the buffet and replies, "Let me grab something and I'll be up."
Cadena waves to Tracy, then looks a bit apologetic when he notices the state of her hair. He sheepishly retreats to the cover of the booth while they get their food.
Tracy follows along, looking over the buffet even though she ate earlier. Maybe there'll be some mood-enhancer jell-O this time around.
Jason is one of simple tastes usually (probably because simple takes less energy), but in this case it's harder to find a meal that doesn't look ridiculously expensive. He ends up settling on a simple sandwich, a small side-salad, and some sort of fizzy grape drink. "I feel like the gorilla at the ball," he remarks to Tracy before he heads over and up the stairs to join Cadena.
"I don't get it," Tracy admits. "What's a gorilla?"
"A giant, dumb, untamed, uncouth, animal," Jason answers Tracy. It's a quick jaunt up the stairs to join Cadena in overlooking the cafeteria. "People-watching?" he asks as he claims one of the numerous open seats.
A robotic lemur scampers along the railing, small enough that it's clearly there just to be cute and trendy (lemur-variant companions enjoyed a spike in popularity last year) rather than actually doing much to keep up on maintenance or serving the guests. It flicks its segmented, striped tail, showing only momentary interest in the diners making their way up the stairs, then scampers along to go pester a yawning office-worker across the way.
"Yes, I suppose," Cadena admits. "I finished with my laundry after our talk about ... er ... the Arcadia family." Despite the effectiveness of the privacy screens, he still seems a bit reticient. His ears flick, and he plays a few chords on the strange guitar, ears swiveling. For some reason, he looks satisfied, then continues. "Ah ... there was something else I had intended to speak with you about, when I visited you in the lab, but your work on the Q-Core was of course more immediately pressing."
Tracy slides into the booth last, with a simple yogurt drink.
"There is always an emergency of some sort going on," Jason points out just before picking up his sandwich and starts munching. "So, it's best to just ask at the time instead of waiting. Anyway, what did you want to ask? I don't bite," he adds once he finishes swallowing. "Well, except my sandwich. I'll bite that."
Cadena's borrowed hand-truck is parked in a spot that would normally accommodate a wheelchair-bound eater at the table. On top of the prototype case that he had on the cart earlier, there's a duffel bag (Avatars-branded, naturally) that is stuffed with Cadena's cloak and robes, freshly laundered, and with signs of some simple stitching. The prototype guitar he holds looks like a toy from Avatars, though its axe-like edges look real (albeit covered with some sort of flexible plastic liner). Cadena considers the guitar again, then sets it aside. "It's regarding Inari. I know I've only known all of you for ... days? Has it even been that? I have a knack for sticking my nose into places where it doesn't belong, but I had a few concerns about Inari, and after further consultation with the SPARK and ... er ... my brief discussion with Ms. Knightley ... well, I guess my concerns aren't exactly allayed. Basically, I'm not certain that Inari is really who she - or Akiko - thinks she is."
"I don't see how they could be anyone else.." Tracy notes.
"You sure know how to pick an uncomfortable subject," Jason remarks before taking a swig from his drink. "Who or what do you think she is? Or isn't? I have no idea what you asked this SPARK, or Sasha, about Inari."
Cadena frowns, fidgeting. "That isn't precisely what I meant. I'll try to elaborate. Inari is a unique individual, of course. I've no doubt about that. But I don't believe that, in any meaningful sense, she is really Akiko's Avatar companion. Their relationship with each other, if it's hinging upon that, is hinging upon illusions. I know a bit about Avatar companions, since it's a topic near and dear to me. I know enough to realize that I am not one. Not merely that I'm an artificial being, but ... you can't just take an Avatar, give it speech, and end up with someone like Inari, or like me. Avatars don't think or work that way. I tried to explain it to Tracy, but I'm having trouble explaining the nuances. A lot of this, I simply know, and a lot of my communication with the SPARK is more empathic rather than verbal."
"Avatars aren't intelligent you mean," Tracy says. "They're like smart animals?"
"Not even that," Cadena says. "I don't think that RIU or ... ah ... that wyvern of Officer Cranston's that I only barely got to meet ... are very representative of true Avatars. Real Avatars don't have fully independent processes. They are intricately tied with the workings of the WHITE, because they are essentially guides to the player experience in the Avatars universe. Augments don't even pretend to be sapient, but play a similar role in pushing players along in their online experience. They seem alive and real in some respect, but they aren't really independent, and their interactions are in many ways just an empathic mirror of the player."
"You're right in that she isn't like an Avatar. I should know since I have one sleeping back in the lap. If you're asking me to explain what she is, it would be difficult for me to do so without basically guessing. If I had to quantify her, she is the result of taking aspects of an Avatar and fusing them with a real person. Powers of an Avatar with the mind of a human. When I decoupled them it seemed wrong to just force he back into being a dumb animal, so to speak. so, I left aspects of Akiko that made Inari, well, Inari," Jason says and shrugs a bit. "I made sure Akiko was clean, but I didn't do as much with Inari because, well ... it seemed like a lobotomy to do so."
"The system can tell.. how a person's mind is organized?" Tracy asks, looking surprised. "I mean, to isolate two different personalities in one person? Or is it only because Inari started out separate?"
"And RIU is a fusion of a concept of an avatar with an old recon robot I had called the Recon and Infiltration Unit," Jason adds.
"I'm not sure that it can do that," Cadena says. "Blake Forrester engaged in an elaborate sequence of 'reboots' of his environment in a mind-boggling attempt to brainwash them. That doesn't seem to imply that he had command of forces that could simply reprogram their minds at will."
"So.. he drove Akiko to split her personality into herself and Inari?" Tracy asks.
"Yes, it could, Cadena. A brain is just a collection of synapses and neurochemical bonds. You could use electricity to alter bonds and adapt sections. Or vaporize bridges or any other myriad of techniques to alter the way someone thinks," Jason notes. "Moreso with anyone who had a builtin interface. You should read up on old medical practices like electroshock they used to use on the mentally ill to alter them."
Cadena shakes his head. "Okay, once upon a time, I would have said that the idea of somehow 'merging souls' into a single mind should be impossible, and yet somehow I'm 'carrying' the 'Observer Soul' of Margaret. Somehow. But ... still, even if Blake somehow had the power to change Inari into a sapient being, THEN merge her soul with Akiko's in a way such that it could be separated again, for some reason he didn't seem to use such sweeping methods when reprogramming the others."
The just-mentioned mini-dragon licks Jason's ear as it gets named. "Breeep!" It resumes gnawing on a holodisplay just behind the power cord. The display flickers, becoming very faint.
"Well, Blake sort of hated Akiko for rejecting his advances," Jason points out. "People do crazy things when out for revenge ... like Tracy's boyfriend blowing up my home."
Cadena shrugs. "Without something approaching hard proof of anything, I have only anecdotal 'evidence' and speculation, but all I'm saying is that if someone were to 'change' Inari the ordinary Avatar into the Inari we know today ... there's no point in it. The process would be to essentially create something that wasn't there before, then slap on some superficial features associated with the old creature and claim it's the same entity. Inari seems to have been far more advanced than any of the other AIs in the North Bend simulation."
"Mark wasn't out for revenge.. and he's my ex-boyfriend," Tracy points out.
"She was Blake's prototype," Jason notes, "And first experiment subject. And he's made sure that he'll win in the end anyway." He resumes chewing on his sandwich a bit rougher than it probably deserves.
"How's that?" Cadena asks. "What, is he still alive? Is he behind all of this craziness with the North Bend simulation? Is he working with Dantech?"
"No, he isn't. As to how, it's not my place to say. If Inari wants you to know, she'll tell you. It's not my place to talk about her private matters," Jason answers.
"Wasn't he killed in the Fracture?" Tracy asks around her drinking straw. "We met the Fry's in the Diadem. If they survived.."
Cadena sighs, hiding his eyes under his hand. "I am, I suppose, talking about her private matters. You're right. I'm just being overly nosy. I read a lot into things, and I've been projecting too much without having any facts to underlie my assumptions."
"You're trying to find answers about what you are by looking at someone who is similar to you," Jason observes and waves his sandwich. "No one can really fault you for that. Needless to say, Blake is gone. There are just some things I apparently didn't fix quite right, is all. I'm real good at botching things when it matters." He stuffs the remainder of his sandwich in his mouth and chews.
"Umm.." Tracy starts, then says, "If there's something wrong with Inari.. would Akiko have the same issue? And.. would Margaret, if she's 'repaired' using the same method?"
"Unlikely, and unlikely," Jason answers.
"I suppose I just find it terrifying to think that it's quite so easy to blend and split minds," Cadena says, shaking his head. "With the concept of the Observer Soul of Margaret ... honestly, I haven't come to grips with what exactly that means. She has only 'awakened' in the presence of her physical body, and near that Q-Core. I don't know if I'm really carrying a second mind around in my own, or whether I'm just serving as an access point for some sort of projection from her own, living mind. Reality seems so ... fragile. Our surroundings, our bodies can be changed by forces that seem to be mostly limited by how the programmers chose to limit them. If only the programmers decided to grant the AIs freer rein, perhaps the whole world would be a realm of chaos - but if at least we could be certain of our own minds, there could be a refuge."
"If what you're saying is true," Cadena says, "and someone as lowly as Blake really could merge souls and split them apart as he so pleased...." He just shakes his head, letting that thought trail off.
"It's all speculation. And really, does it matter at this point? It has happened, it has been done, it will probably be done again," Jason remarks rather grimly. "What exactly can we do about it? Ever hear the old story about Pandora's box? Once you unleash an evil, it never goes back."
Cadena nods. "You're absolutely right. If this is the way the universe works, then I should adapt, not brood over what I can't change. Brother Cadena would be more ... serene about something like this."
"It doesn't have to be evil though," Tracy says quietly. "It could be used to cure people. Although, I guess it could be used to alter their brains too."
"I think I just somehow got the idea that Inari was ... I'm not sure how to put it ... 'missing' something, 'acting out," Cadena says, shaking his head, "and Akiko acting like she was missing part of herself, like she'd lost something because she thought Inari was her Avatar companion, or something crazy like that. I suppose I was just being melodramatic, trying to project my own imaginary narrative onto actions, since I didn't know people well enough to really understand them. I'm trying very hard to get out of that habit."
"You see, that's the problem, Tracy. Many things don't have to be used for evil .. but quite often in the end, they are," Jason notes. "The nature of humanity is greed and self-interest. We can see ashining example of that in Ms. Arcadia herself. Willing to employ any means necessary to save her daughter. While savign a child is an honorable path, doing it by killing others is not."
"Your speculation isn't that far off, Cadena," Jason notes. "I've talked to both Akiko and Inari about it. I could elaborate more on those conversations ... but it's something Inari should tell you if she wants you to know."
"My mom would probably do the same," Tracy mumbles, slouching again.
"Everyone has something they would sell all their morals for," Jason comments, then downs more of his drink.
Cadena frowns, but then offers, "I suppose what I was hoping to offer, is that if Akiko feels that she's missing a part of herself, that her companion is gone ... it's not on account of Inari finding a life for herself. Inari is not her Avatar. Whether you think Blake upgraded her, or whether Inari was created by using Akiko's brain for a neural template, Inari is not an Avatar. Inari's actual Avatar was a collection of data, and anything that gave it 'life' was really an empathic reflection of Akiko herself."
"But, saying it like that," Cadena concedes, "I doubt it would be comforting in the least bit. I don't know if it would help or hurt if I had the power to conjure 'Inari Mk. I' with the power of the WHITE, and reintroduce her to Akiko."
"I sorta got the impression that any 'missing' part of Akiko or Inari's lives was named Jason Edwards," Tracy says, with no snark at all. "They both missed him more than they missed each other I suspect."
"That ... sounds far simpler an explanation than anything I came up with," Cadena says, ears flushing.
"Otherwise, I know the feeling of.. missing something," Tracy says. "It's not a spiritual or physical thing, just.. emotional bonds can be strong. It takes time to recover."
"Who, me? They just don't know me well enough yet to be completely offput," Jason remarks rather dryly. "When you first came to my home, I know you were looking for some hero. Instead you found ..." He motions at himself. "This."
"You must have done something to make a favorable impression on them," Cadena says. "Based on RIU's synopsis of events, it wasn't as if you and Akiko ... er ... Inari ... they ... were on strictly friendly terms. It looked like there were certain obstacles to overcome."
"You're still the only man I actually feel confident or really comfortable around, so that counts for something," Tracy notes. "You weren't as disappointing as Sasha; not by a long shot."
"Because I'm not a threat, I make no pretenses, and I'm honest with you. You don't have to worry I'm somehow trying to use you," Jason points out to Tracy.
"And I don't need to impress you, I guess," Tracy says. "So yeah, that can make you attractive to an insecure person."
"You also risked being brain-fried by a Red Level-6 security system," Cadena notes, "to help a girl you don't even know. You could have restricted yourself to more 'reasonable' risks, and it's not as if this is part of a reputation you are required to uphold, or programming to carry out."
Jason swirls his cup. "Margaret hasn't even lived yet. She's still a child, full of all the hopes and dreams all kids have before the real world decides to tear them away," he remarks. "We need people like her, you know. And no, not because they need the chance to let the world ruin them. Maybe they'll be the one that fixes the world. Besides, it was just the right thing to do."
"I appreciate that you care about it being the right thing to do," Cadena says, smiling as much as his mouth will allow.
"Still.. you do care about the people you help, right?" Tracy asks. "Not just because it's the right thing to do?"
Jason swirls his cup again. "It's what makes me terrified about failing them," he admits and downs whatever is left in his cup. "I've lost most people in my life."
"Did you do like me, and imagine a special reason for all the bad stuff?" Tracy asks. "A villain, a source, someone out to cause all of it?"
A familiar golden vixen can be seen entering the cafeteria, wearing wide sunshades though it's night. The employees near her draw back in surprise as they notice the assault rifle slung over her back. Pinned to her black jumpsuit's lapel is a red-bordered visitor's badge with her photograph, but the space where her name should be, is conspicuously blank. She looks about at the lower level, then goes to the robot-served food area and procures the day's special, ginger-spiced pork roast served on a bed of rice noodles. She skips the side of mint-flavored carrots.
Cadena absently strums a few notes on the borrowed guitar, with the amp turned off, looking down at the frets. "You shouldn't be hard on yourself for that, Tracy. It was not unreasonable to assume that there was more to Sasha's actions, given just how often she showed up to wreak havoc on your life. There have just been so many amazing coincidences lately, I've been drawing more than my share of connections myself. It still find it hard to imagine that it's all just chance. I can only have faith that, whatever might be responsible for orchestrating these travails, it will eventually be turned toward good."
"That's why I want to meet Penny Arcadia face-to-face," Tracy says, and spots Inari. She nudges Jason, since she's on the outside of the booth and he may not have seen her. "I'm tired of being just collateral damage."
"No, but then I got to see early on that it was just typical self-centerdness and money that made them just not care. Or a crutch to get out of problems they cause," Jason answers. "My life changed because a drunk kid decided to joyride in his parents car and hit my parents head-on. And true to human form, his wealthy parents made sure he faced no consequences for double-manslaughter. Money buys everything, including police to lose evidence. What I learned was that life isn't fair and never will be. Mister drunk is now a high-powered exec of some company. Granted his last couple marriages didn't last because his wife got anonymous packages depicting her husband involved in certain acts with escorts, but I'm not vengeful."
"Speaking of collateral damage," Cadena says, and here he reaches up to remove the hair-band from his own hair/mane, "I think you really need this back." He then gets up and returns Tracy's hair-band to its proper place, combing her hair back in place (though a few strands of white have ended up tangled in the hair-band in the process). "I'm sure I can find one of my own. I don't think this is my color, anyway."
"That was weird," Tracy admits. "Nobody's ever brushed my hair since I was a kid." With a glance at Jason, she clarifies that with, "A little kid."
One employee looks at the golden vixen, then whispers excitedly to her co-workers. All three are dressed in standard white jumpsuits with the Avatars logo. Perhaps they're fans. Inari tilts her ear toward them as she wheels her tray through checkout. Her badge seems to suffice; the register shows 'COMP'.
Jason leans over and spots Inari. "Here's your chance to ask Inari about herself if you're feeling brave enough," he notes to Cadena. Of course how he decides to try and get her attention is by folding his paper napkin into an airplane and fling it at her.
"Oh ... er ... Ms. Arcadia likes to brush Margaret's hair," Cadena notes. "She doesn't entrust it to a servant robot. I figure it's important." He looks a bit awkward, and strolls over to the railing to show a sudden interest in the holographic display of the Diadem. He then blanches as the paper napkin airplane goes sailing past.
"She's really close to her daughter then," Tracy notes with a grin. "Thanks, Cadena.. now get ready to duck in case Inari shoots at us.."
The paper napkin may be shaped like an airplane, but alas, it just lacks the material cohesion to stay together in that shape, much less fly straight! Inari does notice the airplane as it wobbles by, however. She glances up, then takes the stairs to the second level.
"Airmail, your fans must be missing you," Jason quips.
Cadena doesn't hear Tracy, as he stumbles out of the privacy field and bumps against the railing to avoid the paper airplane. He instinctively moves to protect the guitar still hanging from his shoulders by the strap, lest the prototype get bashed against the railing or the support column.
Once on the upper level, it doesn't take long before Inari spots them! She brings her tray over -- besides the meat and noodles, there's a dessert cup of frozen soygurt, coffee-flavored. "Everything all right?" she asks. "Something new hasn't exploded?"
"Cadena isn't cooking here," Jason notes in memory of the disaster that befell his kitchen. "So all the food is still intact."
"Jason was able to hack a dead Q-Core using a ghost," Tracy notes. "I had ice cream. Cadena can play the guitar a bit. So.. nothing explodey.."
"Oh, right, we recovered the genetic data from the core," Jason agrees and shrugs as if it were nothing.
Cadena, still by the rail, just watches in bewilderment as Inari steps inside the area of the privacy screen and engages in conversations he can't hear (no matter he swivels his ears) so long as he's still outside. He chews on his lip, then blows dangling hair/fur out of his eyes. Minus the hair-band, and since it hasn't fully dried out after a much-needed wash, it hangs heavier than before.
"Really!" The golden fox glances over at Cadena, then back to Jason and Tracy. "I've just been in debriefing with Holly. It sounds like she's being swarmed with lawyers right now. Her husband got called in, and they're dealing with someone from everyone-- Dantech, angry players, employee union grievances... And it sounds like Voya is trying desperately to find me too, but the company's on comm blackout for now. All communications out to be authorized."
Tracy scoots in closer to Jason, to try and make room for Cadena to return.
"Do you want Voya to find you? I could probably relay something through my link to Kimon," Jason suggests to Inari. "Or even just send them a message?"
The dog-humanoid casts about for a bit, then resolves the seating issue by walking over and finding a regular chair at one of the open tables. He then trots back with guitar and chair, sets down the chair, giving an embarrassed smile to everyone, and rolls his overloaded hand-truck out of the handicapped space, parking it just outside the privacy screen. He then replaces it with the chair and sits down - problem solved! "Ah ... hello. Don't mind me."
Inari looks at Jason as if he had gone insane. "This is my first real vacation since... Since forever!" Not vacation in the classic sense, but a vacation from being in front of the public's eyes.
"Sasha didn't mention Irongrip Security when you were questioning her did she?" Tracy asks. "I still don't know how they're involved."
"Can we have a mean without discussing yet more gloom?" Jason asks, "We'll get enough of that in the meeting tomorrow."
Inari smiles over at the white dog. She begins nomming her pork with alacrity.
"No message it is, then," Jason notes. His poor untouched salad ... well, he uses the lettuce to build a small fort on his plate.
"For my part, I didn't hear anything about Irongrip Security," Cadena notes. "Sasha didn't hint at needing any further help for her schemes, as she had ample financial backing, and willing troublemakers."
"Irongrip Security?" asks Inari. "Holly mentioned they might have to hire on additional security since a fair chunk of their security has to be relieved of duty and background-checked, and their name did come up. He did use to be their head of security, after all."
"So.. no idea why he's stockpiling stolen weapons or why he shot down Randall and Mara yet," Tracy says with a sigh. "I figured my mom would go to Eagle - she told me General Irongrip was not trustworthy anymore, I think."
The co-worker and her two friends creep up hesitantly to the balcony. With the privacy booth's field only muting their conversation, they catch sight of the golden vixen's distinctive ears, despite her sunshades.
"General Irongrip shot down Officer Cranston and Mara?!" Cadena asks, incredulous. "We know this for certain? We must warn your mother immediately!"
"I'm pretty sure she already knows," Jason notes, "And yes we know it for certain."
"I'd like to be absolutely sure," Cadena says. "I'm already responsible for too many security breaches today." He conjures up his VR collar holographic interface, and starts punching at the imaginary buttons with his fists ... then shakes his head and takes advantage of having proper fingers. "I'll make it quick."
"You know, you really should be a smaller sort of dog," Tracy tells Cadena. "More terrier than wolfier.."
A robotic "phoenix" Avatar glides by, its fiber-light tail shifting in an array of fiery hues ... as it carries a coffee pitcher directly to the table of an office-worker who, by the looks of things, has been pulling an all-nighter-and-all-dayer by this point.
The vixen looks curious. "I don't recall Irongrip Security being directly linked in that?" she asks. "What if they didn't know who they were supposed to pick up?"
A holographic image of a cartoony Chinese woman appears on Cadena's holographic interface, dressed in an old-fashioned business dress. "I'm sorry, Ms. Trudeau is in a meeting at the moment, may I take a message?"
"Well, it would mean they're engaging in 'no questions asked' sort of deals then," Tracy points out. "We haven't tried talking to them yet, and I don't know how much Randall learned from them while he was a hostage."
"Yes, please," Cadena says. "Unit AVA-808-X-024 reporting. High priority: VP Trudeau, I heard you are considering using services of Irongrip Security to supplement overtaxed Avatars LLC security. PLEASE DO NOT. Irongrip Security possibly involved in downing of Mara and Officer Cranston. Interface note: Request receipt notification. End message."
"The job came from IronGrip, I have a record of the mails exchanged," Jason notes, "So I don't trust them at all. At least they've known better than to try and mess with me."
The Avatars-logo jumpsuited woman approaches as her friends giggle nervously. She waves hesitantly at the golden vixen in the booth, but her words are muted by the privacy field.
Inari nods thoughtfully. "Well, hopefully Cadena's warning will get through," she says. Her attention is caught by the woman waving at her. She looks up, then sideways to the others.
Tracy slouches a bit further as more people seem to be noticing them.
"I think you have some fans, Inari," Jason comments and waves towards those that seem to be looking this way. "Do you want to say hello to them?"
Cadena sniffs at the air habitually. "Traffic seems to be picking up. Could that mean that they're actually making progress on restoring the system?" He looks up toward the Diadem holo-display, as if expecting to see more scroll updates popping up. "But then, if they actually accomplished anything, I'd expect some noise. Loud cheers, at the very least."
Inari takes Jason's apparent nonchalance as a guide. "Hello there," she says, leaning out of the privacy field. "How may I help you?"
"Are you... I know it's a strange question to ask, but are you really Inari?" the woman asks. "I'm a big fan!"
The golden vixen look aside at Jason nervously.
Cadena awkwardly gets out of the way, since his chair was occupying most of the entrance into the semi-circular enclosure. He stands up and steps out of the field, blinking.
"Would knowing that answer really make a difference?" Jason asks the woman. "Or would you prefer to always wonder if just maybe you got to meet the real Inari?"
Cadena closes his eyes, then flips on the amp on the axe-guitar. He plays a quick sequence on the guitar, accompanied by the artificial on-board backdrop ... but as he does so, he begins to glow, and his hair begins to rise and flow as if blown by an unseen wind. Ghostly chains materialize and drift upward and out, dancing to the music. He sparkles.
The other women gasp as they notice this transformation. "Oh! Oh my god! You must be experimental Avatars!" they realize.
Inari smiles. "However did you guess?" she murmurs. "We're a company secret, so don't tell about us." She holds a black furred finger to her lips and winks.
Cadena stops playing, and then tosses his hair as he smiles to one of the ladies, and then leans forward to take her hand and bow over it. "Real-Avatars Companion Prototype Program, Unit AVA-808-X-024, at your service. It is a privilege to be in the presence of those who make it possible for Avatars LLC to work magic in the real world. Thank you for your work."
The women seem satisfied with getting to meet experimental Avatars prototypes and promise not to tell anything, before leaving them to their meal.
"I think I'm going to go get a shower and some sleep. I feel rather tired; it's been a long day," Jason notes as he pushes himself out of the seat. "And oh, Inari ... Cadena had some things he wanted to ask you. Personal things. I told him he had to ask you directly."
"Like nobody's seen two giant talking animals having dinner before," Tracy mutters.
The golden vixen raises an eyebrow. "And here I was going to suggest we should go out... Hit a nightclub, do some dancing," she says to Jason, raising an eyebrow.
"Sorry, I can only survive one near-death experience a day," Jason quips.
Cadena lets out a long breath, and retreats back to the relative safety of the privacy field. "Sorry about the display there. I thought perhaps that going over the top would make it clear that there wasn't anything secretive going on here to worry about."
"Oh, you'd be perfectly safe in my paws," the vixen murmurs.
"Can I at least get a nap first?" Jason asks.
Inari laughs. "All right, I'll come find you later." She turns to Cadena, "I thought it looked pretty good, myself. You could have a future in show business." She winks.
"You'll thank me later, I'm on the verge of being rather ripe. Shower and nap it is. I'll see you later," Jason says. He waves, then grans his trash and heads down the stairs.
Cadena bows to Jason as he goes, and finally reclaims his seat. "Ah ... well, I had to channel a different role for that one. I probably couldn't manage that on a regular basis. Too ... unreliable."
"Maybe the ripeness is what turns Inari on," Tracy notes, then ducks out of smacking range.
Inari swats at Tracy obligingly, smiling, then leans over to whisper into her ear.
Tracy nearly snorts but keeps it in. At least she's smiling again.
The golden vixen continues to munch on her ginger-roasted pork, mostly passing up the rice noodles, with an occasional lick of her coffee-flavored frozen soygurt. She doesn't seem to have any problems with the concept of eating her dessert at the same time as her dinner.
Cadena takes a moment to gather his wits, looking more sober. "Ah ... I'm sorry to bother you about this, Inari, but I was wondering about a few things." He removes the guitar strap from around his neck and sets the guitar down in the newly-unoccupied seat. "I've been told that you are, among other things, a shapeshifter?"
The golden vixen shakes her head. "I used to be able to change to a large four-legged fox," she says. "But ever since I got, well, 'realized', it seems like illusions are the limits of what I can do. Does this have something to do with the fact you're still running around on two legs?"
"Ah, yes it does," Cadena says. "When I changed form, it was only in the virtual realms ... er ... when we were going through those alternate realities in the Q-Cores. However, I've been getting feelings from the SPARK that somehow I'm capable of changing back to my 'normal' form - even here, in the Real World. That ... rather disturbs me, actually. HECATE indicated that my healing power is of no use to help real people in the Real World, because I can only generate virtual matter with it; if I tried to heal Margaret with it, for instance, it would only be temporary, and in order to live she'd have to go through a portal to the Diadem or some other virtual realm. But if I have the power to physically change here in the Real World ... that seems to call into question just how real I am, after all."
Inari looks thoughtful. "So you're wondering if you're like some kind of holographic projection, only with solidity? And maybe you're being remote controlled by a Q-Core somewhere?"
"That sums up my fears exactly," Cadena says. "It also implies that I'm probably fairly easily reprogrammable in a way that a truly living being would not be. But then ... I guess it would explain how I could be carrying Margaret's 'Observer Soul' with me, in sense." Frowning, he leans over to his duffel bag and pulls out his first aid kit. He extracts some snips, and then reaches up, snipping off a few stray white hairs. He twirls them, and stuffs them into another sample tube, then hands the tube over to Tracy. "Could you perchance hold onto these? I'd like to find out if they're still in the tube in the morning, since I definitely won't be sleeping at the foot of your bed overnight, so I should be far enough away for the degradation effect to kick in, if I'm really made of unstable matter. If it's unstable, it should break up harmlessly in the tube. If it's still there ... well, it doesn't definitively prove anything for sure, but it's worth testing."
"I'll have to check and find out if Avatars LLC has any of my blood samples on hand," Cadena notes. "If they did at some point, but they mysteriously vanished, that would be a bad sign for certain."
Tracy tucks the tube into one of her pockets. "If you were a projection, your hair wouldn't be so messy," she points out.
"My biological factors and flaws aren't necessarily proof of anything," Cadena notes. "It could just be a sign of a very detailed simulation, for all I know. My technical expertise in these matters appears to be quite lacking."
The vixen licks her bowl of soygurt clean. "If you were made of some kind of nanotechnology, when you transformed, you should let out a lot of heat, too," she says, between licking her muzzle clean. "And you should stay about the same mass. Maybe that's why I can't shift to a fox, there'd be a big weight difference."
Cadena nods soberly. "I wish I'd taken the time to learn more about others in the Real Avatars program ... such as it is. I don't know if they might be the same as me, or if we're clustered together just because of outward similarities. I got the impression that there were distinct differences between myself and the rest of the subjects, though I never quite grasped exactly what they were. I was too busy ... playing my role, I suppose." He looks to Inari. "For one thing, my memory is a bit patchy. Do you by any chance remember what it was like to be an Avatar, a companion to Ms. Akiko Summers, before you were able to talk - before you became fully sapient?"
"What if you went back to the Fracture point, Inari?" Tracy asks, a bit shyly. "Would you be able to change there without a problem?"
"Yes... I think I do," the golden vixen says, leaning forward toward Cadena. Her tail swishes slowly in the booth seat behind her. "It's a state of being. You are, your master is, the world around you is. You can feel, you can sense what your master is feeling, you can react to threats... It's peaceful. You don't worry, because you trust your master will know what to do. And when your master needs you, you will be there for him. You are Linked."
Cadena frowns, sitting back in the chair. "But of course, you don't have any of Akiko's memories, before she was Linked with you, do you?"
To Tracy, Inari shakes her head. "I think when Jason made sure that I wouldn't dissolve in the real world, he anchored me to this form. Good thing for him I like it." She winks. "There isn't really much call for a big brute of a fox, in my line of work."
The golden vixen looks troubled. "I... I want to say, no, but I have dreams sometimes," she says softly to Cadena.
"I don't know if they're figments of my imagination, my subconscious wondering what would have happened if I'd stayed the flip side of Akiko's coin, or if somehow I do have her memories too. And I don't know if she has my memories," Inari admits to Cadena. "We sort of fell out of contact, I was busy with my new career, and I guess she didn't want to interfere with that."
Cadena twitches. "I ... okay, I wasn't expecting that at this point. That means...." His face contorts, and he puts his hands up to his temples. "Well, everyone else has heard my wild speculation. Nothing backs me up, though. I was expecting to have it clearly smacked down right here, so I could close that avenue of thought."
Inari looks askance to Tracy, then back to Cadena. "Spit it out, puppy," she says.
Tracy just tries to look small in Inari's presence.
"Just keep in mind that I have an unstable personality profile," Cadena says, "and I have spent much of the past four days navel-gazing as my view of reality keeps getting torn up and spit out. And Bl-- Never mind that. Different topic." He closes his eyes, ears swiveling, and then he opens them again. "I held some crazy ideas. Still do, though I'm trying to narrow them down. One of those crazy ideas was that I was created indirectly by Jason Edwards, as a result of his effort to separate you from Ms. Akiko Summers - an echo of the process he used on you."
"A good portion of this was based on the gross assumption that minds can't be separated," Cadena says, "that Blake did not have the power to simply reprogram human minds any way he wanted, to merge them together, and for them to be split apart again, just so long as the right person bypassed all the security protocols and told the system to make it so."
The golden vixen sits back. "Well, maybe you're spending too much time theorizing... Not enough time just listening to yourself," she says. "I can tell the difference every time when I'm trying too hard to make good music. It sounds forced."
"You mean too much rationalizing?" Tracy asks.
"Listening to myself is a difficult concept for me to make meaningful," Cadena says. "It's very noisy up here." He taps his forehead. "Very crowded. Good grief, but I'm glad nobody can read minds, or this would be even more embarrassing. But to my point, my crazy idea was that ..." He seems to consider something, then stops and starts again. "If you're missing the days of being an Avatar, of having the simple life of just doing as you were told, fighting as you were supposed to, having no real decisions to make, no real life of your own to live, IF that's the case, it's my belief that that life was an illusion."
"So the virtual reality experiences aren't real?" Tracy asks, brow furrowed.
"One night, an emperor dreamed that he was a carefree butterfly," Inari returns. "When he woke up, he wondered... How could he tell if he was an emperor who had just woken up from a dream, or a butterfly dreaming that he was an emperor?"
"If he was a butterfly dreaming he was an emperor," Cadena says, "then I have grossly underestimated butterflies. I'm trying to say, based on what little I can offer in the way of my 'expertise' on the workings of Avatars, as I've tried to understand them, that you aren't Ms. Summers's pet. YOU never were, and there's no going back to that experience. What you've got is data from another entity. If anything, you are a lot closer to being Ms. Summers's ... sister."
Inari smiles. "I think I like the way that sounds. Akiko, sister." She giggles a bit. "But which of us has to call the other one onee-san?"
"The one with the most swords gets to be the older sister?" Tracy suggests.
Cadena opens his mouth as if to give a quick answer to that, then clamps it shut again, looking less certain. "I don't think I can definitively answer that one. Now I wish I could ask of Akiko whether she has 'dreams' of being 'you,' and then I could be a little more confident in the matter."
"That would be me," Inari says confidently. She leans toward Cadena long enough to tap his nose with a clawtip. "But my point is... Even if it was an illusion, it's still part of my experience, my memories, part of what makes me who I am and what I am. I chose to remember having been her Avatar, even if I was really a reflection of her remembering her Avatar, when she had to change forms, back when. I define myself."
"I won't argue with that," Cadena says. "It's your dream. Nobody else can claim it over you. The best anyone could do ... would be to share it."
"I just have dreams of burning alive and being chased," Tracy mentions. "I'll trade you!"
The golden vixen smiles, but continues to hold Cadena's eyes as she lowers her clawtip and lays her hand over his. "Who do you want to be?"
"Whatever I am, I'd at least like to be able to state it with some certainty." The dog-humanoid then looks a bit uncomfortable. "In any case, my theory for a while had been that I was created due to that process that Mr. Edwards rigged up still being in-system, since he didn't exactly have time to clean up the mess before transitioning to a higher-resolution realm - or whatever the proper technobabble is for that. With all the restriction protocols stripped out, even an AD could have co-opted the process in an attempt to make Real World stable entities. All you'd need is one Avatar model, one human neural template, and a complete lack of moral concern over the trial and error you'd need to make before you spit out something that would be stable enough to live and by psychologically stable. Hence, I was going to blame some AD for the mess that happened when several disoriented talking Avatars were left when the Convergence Field receded, and they DIDN'T turn into black goo. I was one of them."
"If that was the case," Cadena said, "then it might mean that part of my neural and genetic template could have been derived from you and Ms. Summers. If THAT proved to be the case, I was trying to sort out whether I'd see you as sisters, or if one of you would be ... my genetic mother." He grins awkwardly. "Hey, family."
"Of course, by that reasoning, that would mean Mr. Edwards would be my father," Cadena suddenly notes, looking upward uncertainly. He shudders slightly. "I suppose he'll get a good quip out of that one."
Inari laughs, patting Cadena's hand, then letting go. "He probably would!"
"Maybe you were born from the GREY," Tracy suggests. "Wasn't it the one responsible for.. well, making people act like people? Err, then again, that would just add another element of complication wouldn't it?"
"I wouldn't mind having a younger brother," the golden vixen says teasing Cadena. "I'd draw the line at having a son though. I don't feel old enough!"
Cadena smirks, wincing. "No, no, I didn't mean it like that!" He puts his hands up in "defense." He then clears his throat, looking to Tracy. "Well, as I've noted together, for all I know I was cobbled together from multiple neural templates. I could be a regular mental Frankenstein's monster. But I've got some very strongly ingrained rules in my head, at least. That is, Obey your master, and that only Avatars LLC - i.e., your mother - gets to tell me who my master is. And then under that I've got a whole mess of vaguely prioritized code-of-honor priorities. Even Black Cadena has to obey them."
Inari shakes her head. "It doesn't sound much like a typical Avatar's program," she says. "Or if it is, then it's a broken one. You wouldn't even think of them as rules, just the way things are."
Tracy nudges Cadena and whispers, "Ask her about useful stuff you need to know now that you're stuck with hands and legs and such."
"I used to think of them that way," Cadena says. "It didn't really change until Margaret's ... well, I thought she was dead. So 'Margaret's death' was the turning point. It was against my sense of self-identity and the way I thought the world should work. I expected a miracle. I couldn't accept when it apparently didn't happen. I feel ... I feel almost sick to find out that there was a miracle after all, and I just didn't know about it, and I fell to pieces, rather than having strong enough faith to see it through. I began to think in directions I hadn't before. I ... Oh. You're right."
The vixen raises an eyebrow.
Cadena clears his throat. "Sorry. I really don't need to dump all that on you. I've been ... I've had a captive audience for the first time in a long time, that's all," he says. "I've been really exploiting it these past few days."
Inari reaches out and holds Cadena's hand. "It's all right. You're a friend now," she says.
"But he needs to sleep in his own bed now, and other confusing things," Tracy notes. "I'm amazed he figured out how to do laundry.."
Inari looks askance at Tracy. "Are you doubting his ability to sleep in his own bed? Seriously?" One ear tilts.
"Well.. he always slept at the foot.." Tracy says, a bit lamely.
Cadena gasps-laughs awkwardly. "Th-thank you," he stammers. "You're far too kind. Good grief, but everything Mr. Edwards has done for me, Tracy, Vice President Trudeau ... I don't know how I can possibly repay all of you. And here another item on my to-do list was ... ah ... well, you see, most of my time ... right. When I've been humanoid, it's just been in virtual reality, where everything is just sort of glossed over, my furhairwhatever stays perfectly in place, I never have to change clothes and they just somehow freshen up by themselves. Fortunately, I learned at least a little about housekeeping at the Arcadia residence, simply because Ms. Arcadia thought it was good for Margaret to 'help' with chores, rather than the robots doing everything...."
"Everyone seems to have useful robots," Tracy mutters. "We had a squirrel"
The dog-humanoid tugs at the lapel of his "loaner" lab coat. "If you've got any tips on where to shop for clothes to accommodate unique forms such as yours ... mine ... it'd be a help. I had so many questions for Tracy and ... well ... it's not like she got much experience with that in the Gloaming, after all."
Inari grins at Tracy. "Your puppy's quite intelligent, you know. I'm sure he can figure out something like how to sleep while in humanoid form." She looks back toward Cadena. "I know a few tailors who do excellent costume-work. Let me give you their numbers, and they can make you an outfit to order. You can have a fabric replicator produce it here."
"I mean, you could ask an AI to make you something, but what do they know about fashion?" she points out.
Cadena's ears perk up. "Really? That would be great! Tracy, maybe you could help me pick a look? I've never actually picked clothes for myself before. I mean, not virtually, either. It's always been Margaret or one of her friends. And I have bad memories of the random set generator."
"It's just disturbing that a four-year old can function better than most people my age when it comes to housekeeping and such," Tracy says. "Do you like bright primary colors?" she asks.
"On white fur?" Inari considers Cadena and his bluish markings. "If you wanted to look darkin', you could go for black and silver."
Cadena looks horrified. "BC would like that too much," he says. "I'd best not go for black ... I mean, I was staying stable more or less even when playing the guitar, but I don't want to risk another switch."
"Well, then you have something of an idea of who you want to be," Inari points out. "You don't want to be Black Cadena. And clothes do help make the man."
"Blues then? I.." Tracy says, then pauses and looks to Inari. "You wear tight-fitting stuff, but is that comfortable? Could Cadena get by wearing.. uh.. Samurai pants?"
"Oh, that could be trendsetting, if he wears them right," Inari says.
"No, that's exactly the problem," Cadena says to Inari. "I keep talking about it as if it's real, even though I know it's not, but a part of me wants to be Black Cadena, like back in the hover car. I've got this delusion that somehow if I acted like Black Cadena, somehow everything would fall into place, and I'd be powerful and no-nonsense like I imagine Black Cadena would be. It's a lie, and I know it, but when I'm under stress, it's still a tempting one, and I've spent too much of my life playing 'pretend' in virtual reality." He clears his throat. "Blue is fine. Loose is probably a good idea, since, well, I've got fur and all, and don't have stylists at my beck and call."
"How many ways are there to wear pants?" Tracy asks. "But.. it'd be sort of like the Brother Cadena robes. And with cranes and fish and dragons on them.."
"That sounds like me and Sasha," Tracy says. "For awhile.. I thought the only way to beat her was to become her. Like.. things wouldn't happen to me anymore if I acted like her and just.." The girl sighs. "Anyway, I went the exact opposite."
Inari suggests, "If you start with a flexiweave, fur doesn't get trapped in the micropores like they would with ordinary fabric. It expands and contracts with my motions, for that skintight look. So you don't need to focus on loose-fitting clothes if you don't want to."
Cadena hmms. "Maybe a suit would be good, with a vest, and a long coat. Like ... late 19th century or early 20th century? Oh, wait, I don't have a human crown, so I'd have a bother keeping a hat on my head, and you just can't do late 19th to early 20th century without a hat...."
To Tracy, Cadena says, "You didn't see the Sasha I saw. She's not quite as strong as you might imagine. She's probably trying to act like someone else that she thinks is strong. I think I saw through her shell. Vulnerability doesn't excuse all that she's done ... but...." He shakes his head. "I'm sure that if Black Cadena got his run through the Real World, he'd be just as under-whelming when put to the test."
Cadena sighs and calls up his VR collar interface. "In any case ... I ought to start taking notes."
Inari looks dubious of Cadena's claim. "She could have been just playing you," she says.
Cadena just arches his eyebrows. "As far as I know, I'm only four years old, so, right, I can't ever rule that sort of thing out."
"Hey, I just realized," Tracy says. "Technically, I'm the oldest one here! So you may call me onee-sama!" She grins widely.