legionworld | [open] I'll edit this to something clever later

Who| Cortana and whoever
What| Cortana is wandering around the computer systems doing Important AI Stuff (ie, being kind of a creeper)
Where| Various locations on Legion World
When| Not super-relevant
Warnings/Notes| Probably nothing, will edit if that changes

As much as she'd deny she's been behaving like a cat whose owner has just returned from a long trip...Cortana has been behaving like a cat whose owner has just returned from a long trip. Of course, the Master Chief hasn't exactly tried to peel her off, either, but even he has to sleep occasionally. (The rumors that Spartans sleep in their armor standing up with their eyes open are almost entirely unfounded.)

Humans are, it turns out, pretty boring when they're asleep. Legion World is a safe zone, so instead of keeping her usual unblinking watch, Cortana tasks a process to alert her if the Chief wakes up. She'll be back before his eyes finish opening. Meanwhile, she sets off through the vast station's equally vast computer systems, getting the lay of this strange new 31st century land. Occasionally her course takes her to a peripheral node, a boundary where the digital can interface with the slow, analog expanse of the flesh-and-blood world, and she takes a peek out.

Occasionally, she finds something interesting.

NOTE: Cortana's an AI and has no body, so any logs will have to be in a place where she can manifest a hologram or at least use a speaker. If you'd like me to write a starter for you, I'm happy to do so. Drop me a PM or a PP and we can come up with a scenario.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Sugar.

Riiiiiight.

Cortana raises an eyebrow. "Going with that analogy, I'm just peeking through the blinds. These systems can't host all of me."

At least not without Cortana hollowing them out first, which would be remarkably unfriendly. Well, should it ever become necessary, she'll dub off a remote backup. She has no intention of playing coy about her true nature; one lie Cortana's never even considered telling is that she's human.

There's a lengthier pause this time, not spent catching on, but on actually steeping in understanding.

"You're an AI." Possibly a VI, but considering that initial train of thought's an insult in one direction versus the other (they had omnics in Los Muertos; she's seen housed consciousness in all sorts of forms) Sombra opts for the more impressive assumption.

It makes sense to her, then, those flickering little streams of code coursing across what would be Cortana's skin.

"Did the Legion create you?"

Are they spying on her? She wouldn't blame them if they were, but...shit if that doesn't put a damper on her plans.

Cortana makes a point of letting her distaste show on her avatar's face. "No, the Legion didn't create me." The 'thank god' (or whatever similar figure of speech someone created from a brain as atheist as Dr. Halsey's would use) is silent but still very much there. "I got hauled here, too."

"Huh." A thoughtful little hum, clawed finger tapping at the strip of azure light that runs across her cheek.

So if it isn't business that brings her here, then cruiosity, maybe. Freedom, and an open system filled with lifetimes of data. A drop in the bucket for an artificial intelligence (she should know, half the information she's stored is in digital format, more reliable than an entirely organic setup) but tempting to anyone smart enough to recognize it.

After all, she'd been doing the same thing, hadn't she?

"You know, you should be careful, amiga. Most people— especially establishments like this— are pretty heavily invested in their privacy."

There's another scoffing noise, mild enough as she turns away from the screen to pick up where she last left off foraging.

"Not that it freaking matters."

Eventually, someone always breaks in.

"You only get the privacy you can enforce." Cortana shrugs one shoulder, the motion just visible above where the screen cuts off. She doesn't care what kind of wrist-slapping the Legion would attempt to dole out should they ever catch her breaking into something. "If they don't understand that, I guarantee you their systems are already so compromised nothing I do will even register."

Being designed for cyber warfare tends to give one a dim view of organizational competence in general.

To that, Sombra stops her digging, electronic spine going stiff alongside the set of her shoulders, back still turned to the screen. It isn't unhappiness that has her paused, but the slow, slow beginnings of approval sitting just there on the tip of her tongue.

After a beat, she turns around, not even hiding the sharpness of her own grin.

"You said they brought you here. That mean you took the oath, too?"

An AI sworn in like the rest of them - wouldn't that be something.

"Yeah." She shrugs again, not delighted with the fact. An oath means next to nothing to Cortana personally, but it means a lot to the Master Chief...which as a practical matter ends up the same place. The Chief would hate it if she broke her word, so she's stuck.

The things she does for friendship.

"Gotta admit, the perks aren't bad." She holds up a hand and a schematic of the Legion World computer network appears over it. Roomy as a Forerunner facility, with way less chance of having to fight a rampant Forerunner AI.

She's still not sure she likes being legally responsible for her actions, though. 'Legally questionable' is more or less her default solution to problems.

"Not bad at all." Sombra echoes, popping the edge of a chip (space-nacho flavored!) in between her teeth and leaving it hanging idly from the corner of her mouth. "Wasn't going to sign up before but—" there's a slight shrug of her shoulders, confident in the idea that whoever she's dealing with understands the importance of maintaining a secure transmission as much as she herself does. "I had a friend that convinced me I should be here instead."

The simplified story: in truth she was the one that listened to Gabriel's recount of his current situation, that made the decision to align herself with the Legion and take whatever she could get as a foothold into broader space, regardless of the Time Trapper and its minions.

But if not for him? She wouldn't be here.

"Amazing what friends can talk you into," Cortana says with a sound that's a little more than a snort but not quite a laugh. Not that the Chief had done much talking, mind. A couple of words and the slightest hint of a frown detectable only through the muscle impulses picked up by Mjolnir was all it took to get her to relent.

Sometimes she wonders when she'd turned into such a pushover. Can she blame it on Halsey's affection for the Chief?

[open] I'll edit this to something clever later

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