A moment of silence [Open]

[chose117.livejournal.com]

Stacy was never truly silent. There was the slightly audible hum of the systems, and the others in the Sensorium, to create a rather pleasing sound within the audible range of most species. But Cortana wasn't adding to that; rather she was sitting on her own created boulder, deep in thought. She'd learned quite a bit from Chief's video logs, and more still from the Library once he'd uploaded her back into Stacy's systems. It was a lot of data to process, and so she'd adopted the thinking pose some humans used. Legs pulled up to her chest, and her head resting on her knees. She looked, and felt, almost normal.

...well, normal as an AI passing as a human could get. Oh, the plant suit she'd chosen to appear to wear went a long way to making her blend in compared to her normal holographic form, but the violet tinted blue hair and bright blue eyes didn't help her to blend in. And she honestly didn't know why she'd chosen those. Nostalgia, perhaps? No, she could return to her simple AI form at any time she wanted. And it wasn't as if Stacy didn't carry some different looking people, so it wasn't to stand out. Maybe it was becuase it just felt right to look this way. A mix between a human and the AI she was.

But it didn't really matter. Even with all her processing power, sorting all the information she had taken in over the past few days would still take some time, and that time would be much better spent on figuring out just what the hell had happened then moping about why she had chosen to take this form.

Comments

[magictrkswwater.livejournal.com]

Irma was starting to feel a bit better after the whole virus incident. After being cooped up in the bus and in quarantine, she wanted to get out and do something.

She opted for the Sensoriums, entering a random one and stopping in surprise spotting Cortana.

"Woah! I'm sorry! Didn't know you were busy!" she said, panicking.

[chose117.livejournal.com]

Admittidly, Cortana was a little surprised. It wasn't everyday that she got jumped while in thought. Maybe taking a sensor or two offline to have more processing power had been a bad idea...

Still, there was no harm done as she stretched her legs out in preperation to stand.

"It's okay. Don't worry about it."

[magictrkswwater.livejournal.com]

Irma let out a relaxing sigh. At least she didn't do anything wrong. Calmed, Irma approached Cortana.

"Y'know, I... don't think we've met. My name's Irma. What's yours?" she asked, curious.

[chose117.livejournal.com]

With a quick push, Cortana was off her boulder to stand at her created height of about five feet. A bit short, yes, but she hadn't really cared at the time. At least the girl-Irma-was calm now.

"Cortana. It's nice to meet you, Irma."

[magictrkswwater.livejournal.com]

"The same!" Irma said. "If you don't mind me asking, just WHAT were you doing?" She couldn't help but cross her arms. "Kind of an odd thing to take up that sort of pose in here. Got plenty of places to do that out there."

She hasn't realized that she was dealing with an AI at the moment.

[domeanthings.livejournal.com]

Tex blipped into the sensorium, more out of boredom rather than having any reason to track her fellow AI down. The boulder got a longer glance than Cortana herself did.

"You can control the whole sensorium, and a rock's the best chair you can come up with?"

[chose117.livejournal.com]

That earned Tex a small frown. What reason would she have to control the whole place when all she needed was a little peace and quiet?

"Humans have a saying: Quality over quantity. I don't need anything besides a rock."

[domeanthings.livejournal.com]

Tex snorted a little to herself. "Humans also invented chairs. I've spent more than enough time on rocks. Trust me, actual chairs are more comfortable."

[chose117.livejournal.com]

"True, but there's another saying. To each his own." Besides. It wasn't like she could get sore or stiff like those with true organic bodies.

[seraphicthunder.livejournal.com]

The blue woman was a new face as far as Reimi could tell as she passed by Cortana's sitting place. Shifting her data pad to the side, Reimi brushed a lock of hair away from her as she approached the AI. "Are you new here?" she inquired curiously.

[chose117.livejournal.com]

New? Well, maybe. Chief had said she'd been here before, but...well, it was close enough.

"Yes. I got here just a couple days ago."

[seraphicthunder.livejournal.com]

"Ah, I see." said Reimi as she rubbed her head. "I just hadn't seen you around before, but it is a big ship after all. I'm Reimi. Pleased to meet you miss...?"

[chose117.livejournal.com]

Big was an understatement, really. If only she could find a schematic...

"Cortana. It's nice to meet you too, Reimi."

[unsc-rabbit.livejournal.com]

Stepping into the Sensorium unit, Kelly had her bag slung over a shoulder. It contained most of her worldly possessions (read: guns) and their cleaning tools. Usually she would have taken it down to the Precint, that was the best place for weapon maintenance. But she'd felt like a change of scenery, and since the Sensorium was mostly sterile, she hardly had to worry about dust or dirt.

She hadn't known the unit was occupied, but if she was surprised to find Cortana there, she didn't betray a hint of it. It was obviously Cortana, despite the more 'human' form. She'd have recognised the AI's features anywhere. Walking over to the boulder, she set her bag down, taking a seat on the other side and pulling a rifle from the bag before speaking.

"Nice to see you looking so well."

[chose117.livejournal.com]

The moment Kelly had sat down on the other side of the boulder, Cortana had smiled. John had said she was here, and she'd believed him, but it was still good to see her here.

"Likewise, Kelly." It really was good to see her again.

[unsc-rabbit.livejournal.com]

There was a clicking, obviously the rifle being stripped and the pieces set aside, before the Spartan reached into the bag again for her cleaning tools. It wasn't that her guns were at all dirty. A Spartan knew how to maintain their weapons after all. It was just a habit. It helped her think when her hands were moving.

"Maybe with someone who knows how to run things around, we'll be able to actually run a mission with a percentage of success that's higher than 2." She was exaggerating of course, they'd run missions with worse odds before. Still, the crew's inability to pull together for long irked her at the best of times.

[chose117.livejournal.com]

That was a very familiar sound, and with familiar company...it was pleasant. She'd actually missed this a little.

"I'm sure we'll manage somehow." She certainly hoped so. She honestly preferred better odds for the missions the Spartans went on.

[whyarewehere]

Grif liked to check in on the sensoriums, though he was always cautious about it. You never knew when Tex might be lurking in here. There was usually the chance that someone was doing something interesting or maybe even fun, so it was worth looking in.

Huh. Who was that chick? Grif didn't recognize her, though judging by the pod suit, she must be part of the crew.

...She also wasn't bad looking, come to think of it.

"Hey, you new?"

[chose117.livejournal.com]

Cortana looked up the moment Grif spoke, raising her head from her knees as she frowned. Another Spartan...strange.

"Yes. I arrived just a few days ago."

[whyarewehere]

"I thought so. I haven't seen you before," he said, coming fully into the room. "I'm Grif."

He tilted his head a little at the frown. "Something wrong?"

[chose117.livejournal.com]

"Cortana. Nice to meet you, Grif." She looked down at his question. Something wrong? Oh, where to begin.

"It's just a lot to process, that's all. And you look like someone I know."

[poetrysoldier]

Ashley Williams much like she always did, was checking for anything unusual and seeing if she could spot anyone she knew. So it was today where she came upon Cortana sitting on a rock in the Sensorium.

She blinked once. "That can't be very comfortable."

[chose117.livejournal.com]

This time, Cortana had been ready for someone to appear and had turned her sensors back on. So instead of jumping or being surprised by Ashley's appearence, she simply smiled a bit.

"You might be surprised, actually."

[poetrysoldier]

The blue-violet hair made her a little suspicious but she knew a blue-skinned woman so she supposed it wasn't that strange.

"Try me. I've seen a lot of weird stuff, especially on this ship."

[chose117.livejournal.com]

Cortana nimbley hopped from the boulder, keeping a wary eye on the woman in front of her. Some people didn't like AI's. Would she be one of them? She'd never know until she tried.

"This would be the first time I've had a body, and it doesn't feel pain." Nor would it last once she left the Sensorium.