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Post by carduus on Dec 15, 2007 11:33:47 GMT -6
He put his gun away and instinctively ruffled the girl's hair. He realised his 'mistake' too late.
Dropping the ball into her outstretched grasp, he straightened up, shot the other Agent a look that could kill and left the playground - composing himself along the way.
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Post by androgynos on Dec 16, 2007 1:00:27 GMT -6
Archer smirked inwardly at the other Agents look. It would have been better if he'd not given him any look at all. Shooting him a threatening look only showed that he had a weakness to hide. That aside, he realized that he didn't mind tagging along after Tucker. It was a new feeling, this not being the one in charge. It gave him a sense of relief he couldn't quite put his finger on, but it let his mind rest from the responsibility of always having to wear the 'big pants' so to speak. Feeling emboldened, he increased his pace, keeping in step with the other agent. He glanced over at him and raised his eyebrow at him and gave him a self-satisfied, knowing look, then looked away.
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Post by carduus on Dec 16, 2007 2:11:27 GMT -6
Not another chance. He grabbed Archer by the throath and smacked him full agent force into the brigk wall to the right. The wall gave away, denting, almost being broken through. The impact of that knocked Archer's shades off - Tucker's made their way further down his nose and he glared over the rims. His eyes were a shade darker blue than Archer's - fixed, somewhere there thoughtful and sad.
"To do that again, you'd have to be my colleague. You're not there yet, Agent Archer." He states - there is the coldness of the machine seeping out of him, yet with a hint of his own personality imprinted on it.
He looks up. Above them is a street sign - perhaps it should have comemorated some great name or event, but some vandal took the liberty of destroying that. Not that Tucker wouldn't know where they were - it was just a detail that caught his eye. The streets seemed the same. Uniformity. Identity set by signs of places and names believed to have some value. So easily to shatter. So easy to forget.
He let go of Archer's throath and straightened the tie which's knot he managed to disrupt. He gave a second look to the bespectacled man before looking at the shades on the pavement. Just cover up your identity. Looking uniform gives you the sense that all bestialities are lost in the mass. Gives you a sense of personal safety and in turn encourages you to be more cruel - and somewhat satisfied with the result.
Tucker was always more on the thoughtful side - perhaps that was why he experienced so many 'flaws' to his being. Correction: his coding.
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Post by androgynos on Dec 16, 2007 7:02:47 GMT -6
Replacing his shades, Archer pondered the incident. Just what he thought. Something bordering on an emotional reaction. He pretended to be unfazed, but in truth, he was a bit shaken by how quickly it had happened. He took care to not smile again, although he could feel it creeping at the corner of his mouth and he was grateful that the shades would hide the smile there. He was sure his eyes were gleaming with amusement and he didn't particularly want to be slammed into anymore walls today. But at least the violent display had broken up the monotony of the otherwise uneventful and monotonous day.
"Shall we go now?"
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Post by carduus on Dec 16, 2007 7:17:36 GMT -6
Pushes his shades higher up his nose and nods. Not looking back - they are almost there.
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Post by androgynos on Dec 16, 2007 10:48:07 GMT -6
((How long before you get your computer back? Did it break? *Now feels despondent*  ))((You will like XP though. Pro version?)) They arrived in front of an old run down looking building in a bad section of town. Prostitutes and drug dealers loitered around the stoop. So this is where the Oracle lived. They walked through the front entrance and approached the elevator. The doors opened and an old man walked out, hobbling on a cane. How wretched. They went inside and pressed the button for the 33rd floor. He folded his arms and waited to reach the floor. |
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Post by carduus on Dec 17, 2007 4:03:06 GMT -6
((*sniff* Untill like Friday! *shakes fists* I am just getting a hardware clean-up and software update. *sight* There is this empty space in my room, where my computer used to stand. Feels like a graveyard now :S Man, I am addicted to that thing XD)) ((But I am getting windows live messenger on my dad's computer - need to manage contacts))
Tucker went through all this withouth any emotion expressed. But when they reached the junction between the 30th and 31st floor, he pressed the stop button on the elevator control pannel. He took off his glasses and looked at Archer: "Knock. Knock."
[Heh heh heh]
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Post by androgynos on Dec 17, 2007 9:13:59 GMT -6
((*shakes head* stretching my mind again...))
Archer studied Tucker for a moment, bewildered. Knock, knock? What was that supposed to mean? And he was in no mood for games. Well, there had to be a purpose for stopping right here at this very spot and their purpose was to see the Oracle, so it stood to reason that this was the way. Frank Archer looked at the panel of floor buttons and pressed the one marked with two outward facing arrows; door open. The doors slid open and he stepped into a foyer. So, this was where the Oracle lived. He looked back at Tucker and smiled knowingly.
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Post by carduus on Dec 17, 2007 10:26:53 GMT -6
He went to the doors. No need knocking. A woman opened and invited them in. Tucker skidded in, like if it was his flat and went to the living room. The children there aknowledged his presence with little interest, but eyed Archer. Some sniggering and whisphering, others just staring. Tucker lounged himself in an armchair and nodded to Archer to go to the kitchen.
Smell of fresh baked cookies hung heavy in the air, the telly played in the backround. Humming was heard from the kitchen. It seemed so... homely you wanted to go in and ask: 'mom, can I have a glass of milk to those cookies?'
[Hmmm... will we get an Oracle or should I just rp her?]
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Post by androgynos on Dec 17, 2007 11:07:34 GMT -6
((so far no one seems interested in joining this thread, so I guess you could RP her.))
Archer walked into the kitchen. He smelled the cookies indifferently. At one time, he might have liked that smell. Didn't know, didn't care. He studied the woman standing at the stove, lifting cookies off a tray with a spatula, humming pleasantly. She was not quite what he had expected. ((XD))She looked to be about 60-ish, of black mixed origin and was plump and grandmotherly. All except for the cigarette in the ashtray next to her. A program that smokes? He raised his eyebrow speculatively and waited for her to acknowledge him.
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Post by carduus on Dec 17, 2007 12:24:32 GMT -6
The Oracle:
"Sit down, dear." She says upon his entry. Her back turned to him - looking into the oven. "It will take a moment untill they are done - crispy just enough."
She takes the cookies out after a minute, setting them onto a glass plate. She approaches the kitchen table and sets them down. She looks at Archer and smiles. "Take one, Frank."
She picks up her cigarette and gives a puff.
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Post by androgynos on Dec 17, 2007 15:28:10 GMT -6
Archer hesitated a moment and then finally decided to sit as she asked him to. He didn't see any meaning in taking a cookie to eat. They were both programs and knew it. Why the charade? He slowly reached for the plate and took a cookie, turning it over and examining it. He took a bite and looked up at her expectantly and waited for her to speak.
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Post by carduus on Dec 18, 2007 2:55:19 GMT -6
The Oracle:
She leans her chin on top of her laced fingers and smiles at him. "How is it?"
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Post by androgynos on Dec 18, 2007 8:43:29 GMT -6
He regarded the cookie, and the Oracle with a little amusement. Ok. He would play along.
"It's a cookie, nothing more. It's made of flour, sugar, butter, egg, oatmeal and raisins. I also detect some cinnamon and a tad of allspice." he replied with his mouth full. He suddenly became aware of feeling embarasment. This was not the way he would have behaved..before. "Begging your pardon," he added. "I should have finished chewing first." Why did that rankle? He suddenly felt a little aggitated. Was she looking for this reaction? And if so, why?
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Post by carduus on Dec 18, 2007 12:05:02 GMT -6
The Oracle:
Continues on smiling: "Bingo. But you forgot one important ingredience - love. Withouth that, they're not even worth doing."
She finished her cigarette and squashed it in the ash tray. "But that's not what you came here for, is it? Lecturing about cooking isn't that important. It is the concept behind it. Focus on your method and observe that of others..."
She did not finish, left it open, ambiguous - lighting another cigarette.
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Post by androgynos on Dec 19, 2007 12:00:50 GMT -6
He contemplated the cookie some more. He wasn't detecting any love in it. It did taste good though.
"Focus on my method? I don't have a particular method. I receive an order and I carry it out. I BECOME. My concern is this: What am I
to become? I have very little residual memory of who I was. I only sense that I was then also cold, indifferent, much like I am now. I take comfort in that. Feelings are bothersome. But I also recall that I was lonely and was never accepted by any of my own kind, save one or two. Who am I to become in relation to who I was and does it even matter? And what will be different and why will it matter? Does anything matter at all as far as that goes? Is this why I'm having such a hard time adapting; because I'm indifferent? I have purpose, but I don't care about it. I apologize; that's a lot of questions to bombard you with. Tucker seems to be adapting well enough. He's above me in rank, although I used to have him under my command. He commands far more respect than I ever did. I feel compelled to..obey him for lack of a better way of stating it. Yet I also feel compelled to provoke him from time to time. He reacts when I do so. I seem to derive some satisfaction from provoking him. Maybe it's because I wish I myself could lose my composure and smash someone into a wall. Maybe I want to feel something."
He observed how she chain smoked and was fascinated. A program smoking cigarettes.
"May I have one of your cigarettes?" he asked.
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Post by carduus on Dec 20, 2007 12:46:19 GMT -6
The Oracle:
She offered him the packet: "Just watch for your health." She laughed, of course, who cared here.
"All matters - yet at the same time it doesn't. You may choose to become indefferent, but that is not your job. You are the way you are, because there is a reason for it - a purpose emerging."
She handed him the lighter.
"Tucker is a reactive bunch of nerves, indeed. Well timed. The End is nearing and all falls in line with it..."
"It is a very human thing to 'loose one's composure'. And if the Agent's are acting like this, the question, Frank, is: should you as well?"
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Post by androgynos on Dec 20, 2007 17:55:20 GMT -6
"Hmmm." he pondered. "I'm not sure that I was very 'human' as you say, to begin with. If I recall correctly, I was often called inhumane and inhuman. You know, the whispers behind your back when no one thinks you hear?"
He took the lighter and lit the cigarette, breathing in the smoke. He could have chosen to cough, but that would have been pointless. There were ways to get into 'human' mode so you could experience more fully and convincingly the human condition. He had no desire to experience the human condition. Humans were sheep, after all. Who wanted to be that? He glanced up at his reflection in the glass oven door. He looked strange holding a cigarette. He put his shades on. "I look pretty cool' he thought, amused by the notion at the same time.
"Is that why you smoke? To be more human?" he asked the Oracle, still contemplating his reflective image. He decided he'd have to start smoking. "I'm not sure what I'd do if I were to decide to be more human. What do humans do besides buy and sell, procreate and kill each other? Of course they play games around this concept of love...ridiculous! No such thing. They merely wear it to make their animalistic sex acts look less animalistic. However, I recall the past, something like that. I had someone once. We did our animal acts, payed bills, fought." he chuckled at that thought. "There were lots of fights. Always led to the 'love', you could say. That was human enough I guess. He's not here though and it's not relevant. I only have Tucker to lead me about pointing the way. I must say that I do enjoy provoking him. It's...fun. That's human, right?"
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Post by carduus on Dec 21, 2007 5:44:40 GMT -6
The Oracle:
"That is your choice to make" She smiled in that motherly fashion at an offspring that was ready to set out into the world. "Whether you want it or not, there will come a time, when you will have to decide. And then that would be unchangeable... That is, if you will believe it to be."
"I smoke, because it makes humans feel more at ease. I am after all 'The Oracle' I am here for both sides, but I got my purpose too. And to fully mantain my purpose, I got to bend towards it on occasions - makes it easier for the 'New ones'."
She stood up. Indicating that this was the end of the debate. She handed Archer the tray with cookies. "Take them into the living room and offer some to Tucker. Watch for the reaction." She smiled, a bit more cruely, but that disappeared a moment later.
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Post by androgynos on Dec 21, 2007 17:49:56 GMT -6
'Well, that's an odd request," Archer thought, "but ok, I'll do it.'
He walked into the living room holding the plate of cookies. He walks up to the couch where Tucker is sitting and after a brief hesitation, he offers him a cookie. "Here, have a cookie."
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))((You will like XP though. Pro version?))
