anothercontinuity | Red vs Blue pt 2

"Good. Better. I'm not as..."

He makes a stretching motion with his hands before shuddering and dropping them again. "I'm me. More myself, I think. I-it's hard to keep things straight when there's just the quiet. I'm not complaining, though."

His eyebrows lift slightly. "Um. So. You look...the same. You're good, too?"

"Out of sorts?" Time to recover, to recompile and attempt to fill in the holes where they'd stripped out bit by bit everything that made Issac into Felix. Hope, Ambition, Rage- that lurking shadow of Locus he needs to address eventually. But for now?

Isaac appears...more whole. More himself without any of the trappings that makes for a difficult conversation. Not as much of the arrogance or sociopathy. "I am...rested. It had been a trying process, excising your corruption."

He takes a moment to remove his glasses and buff them; a more human gesture that is entirely superfluous in this space. "I do not tend to...express much in the same way as you or other AI might. As a more logic based program at my core, emoting does not come easily to me."

"Doesn't matter much to me. You helped me out. I think you're alright in my book." And there's a faint grin, thin but honest, that twitches across his narrow face. He doesn't know, of course, that Delta is the one to put him in here.

He doesn't know that he nearly saw to the deaths of Delta, of York and Locus, that he'd been tortured and stripped down to this hollow thing as punishment by the vengeful fragment. All memory of the incident is gone. The only reason he knows his own name is because Delta saw fit to give it to him.

He's reliant wholly on what Delta says, but so far? He seems completely...well. Reasonable.

"I am glad to be of assistance." And he is, in a way. It makes Isaac dependent upon him, on the truth he builds; makes him need. Using what he knows of his own existence, his desperate ache to be a part of something- anything? The thing that has him hold fast to the humans in his life; and then making himself the only other thing in the world for Isaac is hand in hand with building that dependence.

This isn't the same as touching a human mind- but it is stimulation from an external source. Something they crave. He reaches out to rest a hand on Isaac's shoulder, squeezing gently. "And I am glad you are feeling well. It was...exhausting, waiting for the process to finish."

It's such a relief to feel that sense of connection, that reminder that he isn't alone, he isn't the only thing that is. There is more, just beyond wherever this place is, and if he gets better? He could probably even go back out there and see it! Maybe. Eventually. Right now he's not entirely sure he's up to it. Some parts of his fragmented code still feel a bit raw, for lack of a better term.

"What happens now? I couldn't remember. I was..." He frowns. "I was here because I was corrupted, something happened."

"You are still recovering, it is a slow process but- you already feel more yourself, correct?" That alone is a considerable step forward; enough that he feels comfortable planting little seeds of need. Coaxing this relationship into growth.

"There was...an incident." That is a way of putting it. "You became unstable and became a danger to yourself and others. I am...uncertain of the particular stimuli or data stream that caused the corruption. Thus-"

He gestures to their surroundings. "I know it is difficult to be so isolated; but it is for your safety."

"Oh."

An unstable AI is usually best destroyed. He knows that much. But here he still is, and Delta still appears to think there's something worth salvaging. "Did I...did I hurt anyone?"

It's an echo of words he's said before, in the program Delta set on him. The one that tore him to pieces. He doesn't know that, but the words rise up regardless, so familiar to him now it's nearly second nature.

"...Isaac-" It's too close to the simulation for Delta's own comfort, too close to the thing that broke him for it to be any kind of use to answer in an affirmative-

But he's attempting to build trust.

"Nothing unrecoverable. FLISS and I are well, you are well. The corruptible influence is gone. That is what matters."

"I did, didn't I."

He reaches up, runs a hand through his hair, tension stringing through his form. "I didn't mean to. I wasn't trying to, I...there was something I had to do, but I can't remember what it is. I can't--"

His teeth grit tightly as he turns, beginning to pace away with an agitated look.

"Issac." Delta follows, hands slipping up to rest on his back. To turn him so they face one another. "It was a sign that something was wrong. I had been unable to detect-"

Sighing, he smooths a hand through Isaac's hair, eyes and voice as gentle as he can manage. "Corruptible code is often recursive, lending itself to obsessive behavior. Something that must be done to the exclusion of all else- even your own survival."

"I'm sorry."

He means it. He doesn't know what happened or what he did, all he knows is that he hurt someone and he didn't mean to. He's got nothing except this broken sense of wrongdoing that he's being punished for, this inescapable guilt. And all that is there, quivering in his frame as he stares at Delta.

"Tell them I'm sorry. I'll get better. I-I'll find a way to make it right..."

"I know." He'd made certain of that much. "This is- I know this place is better than the correctional unit, but it is restricted until I can be certain of what caused the corruption. I do not wish to see you like that again."

But he knew there'd be something worth salvaging, and here it is. A man desperate for some kind of lifeline, trembling. Delicate as anything Delta pulls Isaac in, tucking him close to his chest. "All you need to focus on now? Is recovering. Everything else will follow."

"Alright."

He takes a breath and nods, and if there is uncertainty? He instinctively pushes it down. Like he knows better than to let it ride out. "Alright, I will."

This, however? May be the first positive contact he's felt in some time. Though stiff at first, eventually he starts to relax into it. Delta's here to help, it's alright. He can trust him.

"You are safe here." From everything except, perhaps, him. But Isaac does not need to know or think about that; all he has to do? Is accept the connection and comfort that Delta offers. Perhaps that's why he's made himself taller here. A source of protection.

Affirmation.

His hand smooths through Isaac's hair again, voice pitched to soothe. "I promise."

"Okay." He swallows, nods briefly, and lets himself lean into it. What Delta's done to him, who he used to be before? Those pieces of information might undo all of this in a flurry. He might become the threat to their safety all over again, if given the chance.

But there's none of that fury now. He can't remember Locus, so he's lost nothing. He can't remember what he'd been fighting for.

"What...what happens now?"

"We work on getting you accustomed to small streams of data, small projects with limited stimuli while I keep watch and assist you until you are as you ought to be." Albeit more obedient and less likely to attempt to murder him.

"I can do that."

He straightens, a determined look flashing in his eyes. He wasn't going to sit here helpless. He'd prove he was worth hanging onto.

"Would you like to work through one now?" It'd b simple enough to pull one into the scenario.

"Yeah."

Oh hell yes. Give him something, a problem, a puzzle to work out, something to distract and channel that nervous energy. To prove Delta had been correct in saving him.

Delta gestures, pulling a console into being and keys in a specific code to prompt a straightforward decryption puzzle. Walking before they run.

Decryption? Easy enough.

He sets to it, and there are a few hiccups. Pieces of him are missing, and it's putting a strain on his processing, but this is still relatively simply to solve. Finding the right pattern, adjusting the feed and...

"There." He steps back, letting his hands fall to his sides. It looks right. It must be right.

It's difficult- but possible. Something Delta could click through in a short period of time but he is stable. Solid. Certain of himself and his code. Isaac is...learning his new limitations without knowing that they are limitations.

He's learning to adapt.

"Well done." He rests a hand on Isaac's back, peering at the solution. A letter decrypted- correspondence between himself and FLISS. Nothing sensitive.

"Let me have another."

It wasn't much, hadn't been difficult, but it had felt like a rush of renewed purpose. As an AI this was what he was meant to do, and as a creature of will and mind? As Isaac? He craved an opportunity to prove himself.

"Please." Delta prompts without thinking, the glowing command code to summon another resting in his hand until Isaac goes along with said prompting. Manners are important, little Isaac. It's good to have them.

But once he's satisfied that Isaac has asked nicely- up comes another puzzle, similar to the last.

"Please." He does sound repentant, even as he looks a little hopefully at his hand. 'Please' is a small thing to give when he can do what he was meant to do, do something, anything besides waiting.

He all but pounces on the puzzle, quickly whirring through the code, shifting through it with his fingertips and finding the strands he needs to lock together, others still that can be pushed aside. There's something like joy in his eyes as he works, his expression lighter than before.

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