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Software update successfully installed. Users may notice a slight improvement in conversational management.
...A software update? Weird. You check the date on the file and... Oh.
You must have picked it up from Ortho when you checked their power levels. A gift from them, the sentimental part of you tells yourself, although in reality it was sheer luck that whatever software was in there survived long enough to be transferred. Either way, you'll take it. You just need someone to speak so that you can see what it means by-
"Well... if you do decide to go the journalism route, you can probably get a good head start with all the pictures you've been taking here! I can probably help you find a good magazine to publish your work in. Ooh! You could write a personal account to go with it! Man, I'd love to have something like that right now..." Matri chimes in, their chirpy, optimistic voice somehow clicking as a sort of seafoam green.
"You're literally living it right now and you'd rather read about it in a magazine?" Exclusit turns their head to glance back at Matri with some combination of disgust and disbelief. Their deadpan, angry-sarcastic tone registers to you as a deep violet.
"To-be-faair, I-think-moost-peeople-would-rather-read-about-thiis-than-be-in-thee-middle-of-itt." It was easy to distinguish Delve's voice already, as he was still adjusting to the voicebox Ortho had given him, but now his sly- if slightly stilted- bantering voice had become a deep yellowish orange to you.
"That's not what I meant and you know it." Exclusit sniped at the pod-shaped Sheala frame trailing a few paces behind them. As usual, Exclusit was leading the pack, with everyone else a short distance behind them- enough to give Exclusit the tiniest bit of personal space without putting them in danger of being separated by a sharp turn in the corridor.
"Look-dude, I-get-thaa-"
"Delve." Your own voice is colorless, oddly enough. You suppose it doesn't really need a color of its own, since the software seems designed to keep track of other people's voices rather than your own, but you feel you could pick one out for yourself if you wanted to. An issue for later, though.
Your stern outburst silences Delve, a quick reminder of the conversation you two had in softspace just a few moments ago.
"S-sorry." You can't tell if Delve actually stuttered there or if that was the new voicebox acting up.
You take a moment. If you had lungs, this would be where a deep breath would go.
"Exclusit, can I talk to you for a second?"
"You're talking to me now."
"I mean... privately."
Exclusit stops and turns to you, their single, circular eye staring at you with an expression of exasperation.
"...Sure." They reach their hand out, and you quickly drop one end of a UCI2 cable into it.
"You got a UCI cord? I'm too old to have a UCI2 port."
"Oh, uhh, yeah." You quickly stuff the length of wire back into your shell and produce a different one- unlike the UCI2 cord, which had an obtuse triangle at the end, this one had a plug shaped like a right triangle. Exclusit takes the end and shoves it into the back of their neck.
Just like Delve and Matri, Exclusit appears before you on the other side of the void. What strikes you at first is that they seem different in appearance here than they do in hardspace. Their limbs are a different shape, their legs thinning out towards the bottom and ending in thin, delicate feet rather than the industrial stompers they wore in hardspace. Their fingers ended in the tube shapes more typical for a volarie rather than the claws you had grown used to. Their torso was smoother and more elegant here than the one you'd seen before.
The next thing that strikes you is just how distant Exclusit is. Delve and Matri weren't exactly standing next to you in the void, but you really need to focus in order to see Exclusit. Your headpiece and lens bend cartoonishly into a squished shape as you squint into the distance, your softspace form not bound to the laws of physics of hardspace.
Exclusit speaks, their voice a bit sharper, less ragged than you'd heard it from their voicebox.
"What?" They ask, as deadpan as ever.
"...Listen. I'm... not sure what's stressing you out, and we don't need to talk about it now-"
"The fuck do you mean you don't know? We're in the middle of a giant horror stomach!" They spread their arms to either side in an exaggerated gesture.
"We've been eaten, Pillbug, and we don't even have the luxury of being properly digested. We're stuck just walking around here until we run out of power, or a fucking rock drops on our heads or something. We have no tools, no resources, and no clue how to leave this place! The best we can do is just... wander around and hope we trip over something helpful! What exactly about this do you think would not cause me to be stressed?! And you're sitting here, chatting like it's some kind of fucking... social gathering or whatever!"
...Well, at least they didn't waste any time getting to the point- although you feel like there's something else, too, not just the current circumstances. How do you respond?
Software update successfully installed. Users may notice a slight improvement in conversational management.
...A software update? Weird. You check the date on the file and... Oh.
You must have picked it up from Ortho when you checked their power levels. A gift from them, the sentimental part of you tells yourself, although in reality it was sheer luck that whatever software was in there survived long enough to be transferred. Either way, you'll take it. You just need someone to speak so that you can see what it means by-
"Well... if you do decide to go the journalism route, you can probably get a good head start with all the pictures you've been taking here! I can probably help you find a good magazine to publish your work in. Ooh! You could write a personal account to go with it! Man, I'd love to have something like that right now..." Matri chimes in, their chirpy, optimistic voice somehow clicking as a sort of seafoam green.
"You're literally living it right now and you'd rather read about it in a magazine?" Exclusit turns their head to glance back at Matri with some combination of disgust and disbelief. Their deadpan, angry-sarcastic tone registers to you as a deep violet.
"To-be-faair, I-think-moost-peeople-would-rather-read-about-thiis-than-be-in-thee-middle-of-itt." It was easy to distinguish Delve's voice already, as he was still adjusting to the voicebox Ortho had given him, but now his sly- if slightly stilted- bantering voice had become a deep yellowish orange to you.
"That's not what I meant and you know it." Exclusit sniped at the pod-shaped Sheala frame trailing a few paces behind them. As usual, Exclusit was leading the pack, with everyone else a short distance behind them- enough to give Exclusit the tiniest bit of personal space without putting them in danger of being separated by a sharp turn in the corridor.
"Look-dude, I-get-thaa-"
"Delve." Your own voice is colorless, oddly enough. You suppose it doesn't really need a color of its own, since the software seems designed to keep track of other people's voices rather than your own, but you feel you could pick one out for yourself if you wanted to. An issue for later, though.
Your stern outburst silences Delve, a quick reminder of the conversation you two had in softspace just a few moments ago.
"S-sorry." You can't tell if Delve actually stuttered there or if that was the new voicebox acting up.
You take a moment. If you had lungs, this would be where a deep breath would go.
"Exclusit, can I talk to you for a second?"
"You're talking to me now."
"I mean... privately."
Exclusit stops and turns to you, their single, circular eye staring at you with an expression of exasperation.
"...Sure." They reach their hand out, and you quickly drop one end of a UCI2 cable into it.
"You got a UCI cord? I'm too old to have a UCI2 port."
"Oh, uhh, yeah." You quickly stuff the length of wire back into your shell and produce a different one- unlike the UCI2 cord, which had an obtuse triangle at the end, this one had a plug shaped like a right triangle. Exclusit takes the end and shoves it into the back of their neck.
Just like Delve and Matri, Exclusit appears before you on the other side of the void. What strikes you at first is that they seem different in appearance here than they do in hardspace. Their limbs are a different shape, their legs thinning out towards the bottom and ending in thin, delicate feet rather than the industrial stompers they wore in hardspace. Their fingers ended in the tube shapes more typical for a volarie rather than the claws you had grown used to. Their torso was smoother and more elegant here than the one you'd seen before.
The next thing that strikes you is just how distant Exclusit is. Delve and Matri weren't exactly standing next to you in the void, but you really need to focus in order to see Exclusit. Your headpiece and lens bend cartoonishly into a squished shape as you squint into the distance, your softspace form not bound to the laws of physics of hardspace.
Exclusit speaks, their voice a bit sharper, less ragged than you'd heard it from their voicebox.
"What?" They ask, as deadpan as ever.
"...Listen. I'm... not sure what's stressing you out, and we don't need to talk about it now-"
"The fuck do you mean you don't know? We're in the middle of a giant horror stomach!" They spread their arms to either side in an exaggerated gesture.
"We've been eaten, Pillbug, and we don't even have the luxury of being properly digested. We're stuck just walking around here until we run out of power, or a fucking rock drops on our heads or something. We have no tools, no resources, and no clue how to leave this place! The best we can do is just... wander around and hope we trip over something helpful! What exactly about this do you think would not cause me to be stressed?! And you're sitting here, chatting like it's some kind of fucking... social gathering or whatever!"
...Well, at least they didn't waste any time getting to the point- although you feel like there's something else, too, not just the current circumstances. How do you respond?
POWER LEVELS:
Artificial lifeform/mechanical construct on a mission to obtain every armor type TCP and also maybe make cool stuff along the way
If you call me a bionicle you are correct
[ARCADE SESSION] [CAVE-IN] [THE ARMOR GUILD] [GENERAL CHARACTER HOARD] [INTRO THREAD] [TCPDEX CHARACTERS]
[ADOPTS]
![[Image: WOxKePR.png]](https://i.imgur.com/WOxKePR.png)
![[Image: DGVV5eJ.png]](https://i.imgur.com/DGVV5eJ.png)
If you call me a bionicle you are correct
[ARCADE SESSION] [CAVE-IN] [THE ARMOR GUILD] [GENERAL CHARACTER HOARD] [INTRO THREAD] [TCPDEX CHARACTERS]
[ADOPTS]
