[MINGLE] One-Man Show

[sixthiteration]

WHERE: Inari Shrine and elsewhere
WHEN: 25 January 2019 through ?
OPEN TO: All opted in characters
WARNINGS: Please warn in the subject line of your comment as needed, and remember to move anything turning adult to a new post.
IMPORTANT NOTES: Final reminders and informational links are here. Please label all top-levels clearly so that there is no confusion who they are open to and what they are for, and DON'T FORGET TO ADD YOUR TAG!
Have fun and ask questions here!

Comments

[youcantkillme]

November 5th to November 9th. Connor knows down to the minute when Connor approached him, and he still has the time stamp of the last memory they spent together. The LED at his temple blinks a few times.

"... I was assigned to the case four days before I arrived here."

He wants to be back there. He needs to solve the cases. He wants to look for clues, wants to check in on the Lieutenant, wants to ask after his dog. All for the sake of the case, of course. Maintaining a positive working relationship was important, especially for someone like Hank.

...

... Realistically... Connor has been out of contact for a very long time. The case wouldn't have waited, Cyberlife would have deployed--

--Connor's LED blinks faster. His eyebrows twitch upward very slightly, and he focuses on Shiro.

"I look forward to resuming work when I return. Have you ever worked in a partnership before, Shiro?"

[rebornpaladin]

It's interesting, watching Connor think, but Shiro doesn't stare. He just smiles and drops his head a little, nodding.

"Yeah. Sometimes, back on Earth, but mostly after leaving it. After... what you saw. I worked with a small team, very closely."

[youcantkillme]

After the torture, mutilation, and captivity, Shiro means.

"What were they like?"

[rebornpaladin]

He hasn't spoken of them, any of them, since waking up. His demeanor changes but it's subtle. There's pride and affection in the set of his eyes and the tilt of his mouth but it's weighed down, a complicated expression.

"They were all very different people. Young people. But they were all dedicated, even though our mission was dangerous. Pidge would be losing her mind, meeting you. Technology was her primary interest, and she was a genius. You could have a much more nuanced conversation about the history and development of AI with her than me."

[youcantkillme]

Shiro has shifted. He is proud, but he also... misses his friends very much. Connor's voice has grown the slightest bit softer, and he inclines his head 1.4 degrees.

"She sounds like someone I would have enjoyed talking with." Is Shiro using the past tense because his friends are dead? Whether they are or not, they're definitely out of Shiro's reach. "I'm glad you had a good team."

[rebornpaladin]

The display of empathy is fascinating, but Shiro only shrugs, smiling more, staying on topic.

"Me, too. It means I don't have to worry about them, even though I can't be there. I know they're taking care of each other."

[youcantkillme]

"I'm sure that they are." Connor smiles back. "How long had you all been a team, if you don't mind my asking?

The rabbit's carcass is gone, swept off for washing and cooking. The fire they were about to build is still absent, and the kindling is in an unorganized mess to one side. Connor doesn't look at it, listening to Shiro with his full attention. He's a good listener. The fidgeting, constantly moving android that comes out when left to his own devices is nowhere in sight.

[rebornpaladin]

Shiro's noticed, but doesn't yet move to collect the kindling, or do any of the other tasks better suited to someone with two arms.

He has to stop letting it bother him.

"About a year, I guess. It was a little hard to keep track of time with the amount of, uh, intragalactic travel we were doing via wormhole."

It's probably the easiest way to boil it down.

[youcantkillme]

"Wormhole?" Connor has no science fiction literature saved to his offline data banks, but he's at least able to define the term. His LED blinks quickly as he digests the concepts: time and space distortions are involved, apparently. Even without this, constant travel is a convoluted task when it's not experienced from the inside of a shipping crate. Wormholes and travelling combined must have made this past year a long one.

"What was your team's mission?"

Shiro described their work with that term, rather than 'job', or 'contract'. This combined with subtle cues of body language have already given Connor a vague suspicion of something combat-related, but he doesn't have enough clues to form any solid conclusions.

[rebornpaladin]

"To overthrow a tyrannical, oppressive, militaristic regime that had been putting a stranglehold on a galaxy over the course of about ten thousand years," Shiro explains.

"It was a little complicated."