[Social] Drifter Dreamer Stranger Skrull

[Shari]

It's extremely easy to disappear when you're an alien shapeshifter trained in infiltration, even if you're kind of exceptionally bad at the actual infiltrating part. So when Lippincott took over Shari slipped away. Not entirely, although she'd been contemplating running rather than risk getting exposed by the government, but she'd spend a lot of time around Maldon as a stray cat, bumming stuff from people and just generally falling back into old routines. But she hung around, keeping an eye on things and when the situation came to a boil she made her way around campus in the general chaos, listening to people talk, piecing together what happened and the various rumors already floating around.

Not much later, an oversized otter climbs out of the water and into the hidden passage into the crystal cavern, shaking the water off her shape stretches out into the human shape she'd settled on as 'hers'. The young middle-eastern woman wanders into the cavern proper, gawking at the shimmering crystals, occasionally running her hand over a particularly smooth facet or tapping a shard with a finger as if it was a fishbowl.

[Natalie Denisov]

The tapping causes the light in the crystals to ripple and shimmer and after a moment, Natalie materializes next to the 'central' cluster. She looks around for a moment before spotting Shari and immediately looks nervous, pushing a 'stray' hair behind her ear, "Umm... hi."

[Shari]

"Whoa, did you just teleport in? I didn't know you had that kinda tech!"

[Natalie Denisov]

"I... don't. It's... can we talk? And... promise you won't freak out on me? Cause it's kind of a long story and there's a lot to it," she babbles.

[Shari]

"Sure?" she says, managing to fit a lot of confusion into a single word.

[Natalie Denisov]

"So I followed one of the prefects down here because I knew they couldn't get their hands on this..." She rambles through the story, in particular Natalie fashion, trying to justify her reasoning at points like she's presenting a science project and overexplaining the technical points at others. Through it all she fidgets, especially when she gets to the part about sacrificing her body to save Ashlie. She takes several deep breaths, old habits die hard after all. "... and so now I'm responsible for an interdimensional computing matrix that's, frankly, amazing... and the only thing I'm worried about is what you think." She chews on her lip.

[Shari]

Shari's expression grows increasingly nervous throughout the story, then briefly a bit confused as she tries to follow Natalie's over-explaining and finally landing on almost excessively neutral which is almost certainly a mask.

"That's... a lot. Are you okay? You look okay but I guess that doesn't necessarily mean anything..."

[Natalie Denisov]

"I'm really good, mostly. Still wrapping my head around a lot of it and undoing the damage that Ghost did to the system," she says. She steps closer to Shari, "I've missed you though."

[Shari]

"Yeah, I kinda... dipped for a while. I wasn't super eager about being found out..." she says, not moving closer to Natalie herself but not stepping backwards either.

[Natalie Denisov]

"I thought that might have something to do with it or I would have been looking for you," she says, closing the distance a bit more tentatively now that it looks like Shari isn't reciprocating.

[Shari]

Something about Natalie approaching makes Shari look up at her from previously having kind of avoided her eyes.

"Your footsteps made sounds." she says, which is kind of an odd detail to point out. Then she takes a step forward herself and gives Natalie's shoulder a firm poke.

[Natalie Denisov]

Simulated though it may be, it does feel like a t-shirt-covered shoulder and Natalie actually reacts to the poke. She blinks and looks at Shari, "What was that for?"

[Shari]

"You said you're in the computer now and something about projectors and I figured you're, like, a hologram now or something!" she says before pulling Natalie into a hug now that she knows she isn't going to topple through her.

[Natalie Denisov]

Natalie returns the hug quite happily with a sigh of relief. "Well, I am. But it's more like the Danger Room stuff."

[Shari]

"So you... can't leave this cave? Ever?"

[Natalie Denisov]

"The cave is easier at the moment, but I should have access to all of campus soon," she says, "There's three more of me, sort of, in there, and we're all working hard on the system."

[Shari]

"Yeah that part I don't think I understood either. There's three more of you but you downloaded them from some kind of... space station?"

[Natalie Denisov]

"Still working out that bit. I think they used me as a template, but they're connected to me? So they are me to a certain extent," she says, "I can introduce you if like."

[Shari]

"Uh, yeah, sure. So they're... clones of you? Kids? Did you have kids with some strange cave full of crystals?"

[Natalie Denisov]

"More like... siblings? Friends? Hard to say." As she comments, Caretaker and Clarion appear behind her. Guardian appears behind Shari, the head of the armor suit tilting to the side as she regards the visitor. "Shari, meet Caretaker, Clarion, and..." She coughs slightly and gestures, "Guardian."

[Shari]

Shari actually jumps a little, horned ridges replacing her eyebrows and sprouting along her cheekbones.

"Yikes! Don't sneak up on me like that!" she says with a nervous laugh.

[Natalie Denisov]

"Guardian is... particular," Clarion says, "but she likes you." It certainly sounds like Natalie. She holds out two of her hands towards Shari, "I understand you wish to verify physicality?"

[Shari]

"Oooh! I get it now!" she says, giving Clarion the double-down-low. "They're the ones who do the machine thinking! The... the..." she snaps her fingers looking for the right word. "Ph'ra'thon." she finally settles on a Skrull word.

[Natalie Denisov]

"Sort of," Natalie says, "Clarion handles communications, Caretaker handles maintenance and expansion, and Guardian keeps track of the defenses." Every so often, there's a moment where all four of them assume the same posture as Natalie or make the same subtle gesture as Natalie, but none of them seem to be aware of it, not even Natalie. "They're all intelligent though, built using me as a template if I understand correctly."

[Shari]

"Yeah, yeah! What's a good human word... It's like the method acting but at the same time. That's very clever!"

[Natalie Denisov]

"I don't know that I'd say 'acting'. They *are* me in some way. We're all connected and I can tell what they're thinking and they know what I'm thinking."

[Shari]

"That's cause the word's not quite right... Performative? They let you be the computer program without you becoming the computer program. No that's not quite it either..."

"If you are the computer and do the computer things then you become the computer things, but if you're inside the computer and have other yous that can do the computer things at the same time then you don't have to worry about only being the computer things because you're also the Natalie things."

[Natalie Denisov]

Natalie seems to ponder that for a moment and then nods, "We share the load so there's enough Natalie to go around."

[Shari]

"Close enough. Either way, it's very smart!"

[Natalie Denisov]

She's not entirely sure she should take credit for it but she decides to just smile and say, "Thanks. So are we... good?"

[Shari]

"I... uhm... I'm not sure what that means. I think so?"

[Natalie Denisov]

"Well, we've had disagreements over this sort of thing before, and while I did what needed to be done... I was still worried you'd be upset."

[Shari]

"I'm a little worried, maybe. But I think these guys are gonna help a lot with you being you. And... this is clearly something you want. I know, circumstances and emergencies but... it's kind of always your first instinct."

[Natalie Denisov]

"I just want to help and this was how I could do that." At some unspoken gesture, the other three vanished. Natalie reaches out to take Shari's hands, squeezing them gently, "And none of it changes how I feel about us."

[Shari]

"But you can't ever leave..." she says, squeezing back with a sad smile.

[Natalie Denisov]

"I'll have full run of the campus soon," she says, moving her hand to Shari's cheek. "And I *think* I can take us to the Citadel. If you think these crystals are pretty, the Citadel is gorgeous. And maybe, they know of something that will give me some mobility outside of the campus once I'm better established in the system."

[Shari]

"There are worse places to be stuck..." she admits.

[Natalie Denisov]

"Don't think of it as being stuck. Just think of it that I can be anywhere on campus at any time you need me," she says with a smile.

[Shari]

"But no Maldon, no London or anywhere else..."

[Natalie Denisov]

"No Maldon yet. No London yet." She chews on her lip for a moment. "But there's still this..." She leans forward and kisses Shari.