IC Inbox

[gorobo]

Hello there! It looks like I'm currently unavailable, so please call back later, or leave a voicemail after the tone. If it is truly urgent, please message me at (XXX) - XXX - XXXX.
Thank you, and have a nice day!

You have this number, so feel free to leave a message. 

(OOC: Inbox is open for messages, calls, and general interactions. Just specify which one it is!)

Comments

[gorobo]

_{[Of course Falcon's his ally here. Considering what Glitch is capable of with him...]}

Only in the worst ways possible, really.

The reason I'm here is to make sure they don't fuck things up, and stop them if they do. If it comes to that, I've got your back. Can I assume the same?

[pancakeboy]

[That's ... reassuring, actually.]

It's a deal. I appreciate it.

I'll have to stand with Crow if Glitch makes it an issue. But that's my business. I won't ask it of you.

[gorobo]

_{[Yeah, Falcon doesn't get what Magpie sees in Crow... but that's his business, as he says. Falcon won't interfere.]}

Wonderful, and likewise.

As for Crow... I'll leave that to you, then. Though I can't say I'll stand by idly if Glitch tries anything, if only for my own peace of mind.

<sub>[Her files still itch in the back of his mind... it still feels like a countdown to losing his autonomy again.

Never again. Never. He'll die before that.]</sub>

[pancakeboy]

[He's not sure he could explain it if he tried, what's between him and Crow at the point. It ties him down like any obligation does, yet he doesn't even care. As raw as the bond feels at this moment, he'd die before he saw any harm come to him—perhaps now of all times.]

Let's hope the mission comes off without a hitch. I've committed to make the attempt, and I will. If Drake won't play along, that's on him.

You're concerned she might attempt something in the Palace?

[gorobo]

Good to hear. Then it's up to Drake to accept as much, I suppose.

As for Glitch, I'm sure she wouldn't purposely do something to compromise this mission, considering how much she cares for her brother. That said, I don't trust her in the slightest. Not after she hacked me.

<sub>[No, he deletes that last part. It isn't pertinent to the conversation at hand, and it looks too much like fishing for pity. Which he's not. He'd hate that.

Instead, his unanswered question comes back to mind. He decides to press.]</sub>

I am still curious about that message, however. You never did say what it was about. I can deduce that Drake did something to Crow, at the very least.

It won't change anything about our agreement, but indulge me.

[pancakeboy]

[He thinks about that one for a while. Does he want to explain? He didn't explain even to Crow, when he asked.]

It was personal. [Another long delay, then....]

Nothing waits for us but death. I think you know that too. For me, at least, justice demands its price. For you, given your circumstances, it's different. But I think you know the price will still be taken.

I thought Drake knew that as well. That's all.

[gorobo]

_{[Hmm... it's not a full explanation, but Falcon knows when to back off.]}

I see.

_{[He doesn't like what Magpie's saying. Not in the slightest. Falcon doesn't like thinking about it, but... Magpie's not even wrong. Still...]}

I can't say you're wrong, on a pragmatic level. Personally, however, I will not die until my mission has been fulfilled. I refuse. I'm sure you understand the feeling.

Death is a complicated thing for me anyway, as a machine that can be rebuilt on a whim, but justice will be served. I'm not exempt from that.

[pancakeboy]

You should fight it. It's not justice, to kill you for matters beyond your control. But they'll do it all the same, if they can. Hell, I plan to fight it too.

[Not by choice, admittedly. But if Drake was determined to get himself killed, why burden Crow with things he can't change?]

I imagine Shido will be startled indeed, to find his puppet has broken its strings. Good luck with that.

[gorobo]

Please, don't act like I'm wholly innocent. Almost all of those people deserved to die, anyway. I may not have done it if things hadn't changed, but they did, and here we are. I'm not the same machine I was when he seized me, and I don't think that machine will come back.

It's not for a lack of trying. I'll fight until I can't anymore, of course, but I'm just being realistic.

It seems we'll both have to, if we want anything at all regarding justice.

_{[Still, though... there's a small feeling of relief. That Magpie believes he deserves to live. He's not sure that's true, but for all his idiocy, he thinks Magpie deserves to live, too.]}

I'll be honest: I can't wait to see the look on his face. To see the exact moment he realizes that the puppet he thought unable to break free has done so, and has come to end his life.

I want to see him afraid. I want him to beg. I want him helpless and unable to do anything.

Now if only they'd let me out of here so I could do exactly that.

[pancakeboy]

[And God, that's what he would have said he wanted too. But it wasn't the case at all, was it? It wasn't ever about Shido. It had been about him, all along.]

Crow would ask if that revenge is truly worth your life. Myself, I'll say that's your choice to make. He deserves more than you can give, for what he did to you.

Innocence is a simpler question than most think, it seems to me. Our choices make us innocent, and that's all justice should concern itself with. Divorced from agency, from free will, our motives and even our acts... they might make us dangerous, they might unfit us for society or life itself. They may define us. But it's the hand on the button that commits the crime.

I've thought about this far too much. [Lots of long, lonely nights alone, you know, with blood on his hands.]

[gorobo]

No offense, but Crow can stick it where the sun doesn't shine. There is only one purpose for me, and it is as such: destroy Shido and his conspiracy until there is nothing left. They wanted a weapon, so they'll reap what they sowed.

That is my choice. It is the only choice worth making, in my opinion.

I can't say I haven't thought about it a lot myself. _{[What with all the times he was left to idle, waiting for a new command, or a new 'upgrade', or...]} That all said, however, what does one do with dangerous weapons? What do you do with the tools explicitely made for the purpose of the crime? One could say that it is not the fault of the tool, but when a tool is made with only that purpose? It is common sense to destroy said tool, or at the very least, make it so that it can no longer be used to commit crimes. In the best case scenario, you use it to reverse the damage it caused, and then disassemble it, so it may do damage no more.

A gun may just be a gun, but there are regulations for a reason. Does having sentience absolve a weapon from the hurt it caused? Does that exempt it from any regulations? Especially when it took pleasure in the acts committed by it?

Innocense may be simple, but a tool that malfunctions or causes damage still gets trashed.

[pancakeboy]

[His lips purse, reading. Because that's what it comes down to in the end, doesn't it, a lot of it? What is he, truly, other than the weapon he made of himself? What can he do, other than what he does? To say "anything" is to miss the point.]

You're not wrong. And like I said, it is your choice in the end. But my argument is on the nature of justice, not our place in society. Society would rightly view both of us as monsters. Justice should be clearer-minded, or it's not justice.

This is getting more personal by the minute.

[gorobo]

Of course. There's no use entrusting justice to society, not as it is, anyway.

A little too personal. In the end, we both know what must be done.

_{[No use arguing over something they mostly agree on, anyway.]}

[pancakeboy]

That we do.

I'll see you at the Palace tomorrow.

[Aware of Falcon's nature, he doesn't say "bring popcorn"—but he thinks it. And, as he sets down his phone, a voice he can't hear sounds in a distant place, muffled by the shelves of ledgers on the walls. Seeker, rank two. That was a little fast. Faster than usual.

Of course it was, chuckles the old man's voice. He's learning.]

[gorobo]

Of course. See you tomorrow.

<sub>[Somewhere outside of Falcon's perception, a girl's voice hums.

The Wanderer, rank two.]</sub>