Inbox: Mask or Menace

[megabytes]

"You've reached the comms device of Megaman.EXE. I'm not available at the moment, so please leave a message and I will respond as soon as I am able! Thank you!"

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[microbrobotics]

[ Reluctantly, he loosens his grip a little. ]

No it won't. I promise.

[megabytes]

[Megaman keeps pulling back until he can back away, out of Hiro's reach.]

Liar. [Another sob.] S'already different.

[Don't even try to tell him you don't think differently about him in some way. He won't believe it for a second.]

[microbrobotics]

[ He lets his hands drop then. God, this is not going the way he had planned at all. ]

How?

[megabytes]

You don't think about me the same way. I know you don't. You're gonna treat me differently, too.

[microbrobotics]

If anything it's gonna be better. You're amazing already.

[megabytes]

See! I knew it! [That's pretty much all he can take. One breakdown, coming right up.] You think this makes me better somehow, like- like me being just a navi is...is...

[Not good enough.

He doesn't want to be human. He doesn't care about being human. He doesn't miss being human. He just wants being Megaman the Netnavi to be good enough for the people who matter.]

[microbrobotics]

What?

[ It takes him a moment for him to even realize what Megaman means. And he's still not sure how being human makes Megaman anything other than extra special. ]

You - you were my navi before all of this! Why would I think that' not good enough?

[megabytes]

[The problem is that Megaman doesn't want to be any kind of special. He just wants to be himself.]

Why would this make anything "better," then? If I was already good enough then why would that even be possible?

[microbrobotics]

It's like - I dunno, if I were secretly an AI my brother had programmed. We'd still be friends, right?

[megabytes]

Yes, because I like you for you! It wouldn't make you any better or any worse because you're Hiro and that's why I like you!

[microbrobotics]

Then why do you think I'd be any different?

[megabytes]

Because you wouldn't leave it alone! Because this matters to you! Because you said this could make things better!

[microbrobotics]

[ Hiro goes quiet for a moment, flinching guiltily. ]

I thought it was cool, that's all. Something cool about you I didn't know yet.

[megabytes]

...you weren't supposed to know at all.

[Not yet, anyway. He'd kept telling himself he'd tell Hiro eventually, but he never got comfortable enough.]

[microbrobotics]

Now I do.

I'd like you either way. Just as much.

[megabytes]

But it's still gonna be different. I'm not gonna be just a navi to you anymore.

[microbrobotics]

You weren't just a navi to me before.

[megabytes]

That's not what I mean! You're not gonna think about me without thinking about...about...

[Still can't say it. This deep into the conversation and he still can't say it.]

[microbrobotics]

... I already thought of you as a person. What's the difference?

[megabytes]

There's a big difference between thinking of someone as a person and thinking of them as a human.

[microbrobotics]

[ He shrugs, lightly, and bows his head. ]

You really think I'm that shallow?

[megabytes]

...you already called me human.

[microbrobotics]

That doesn't mean I think of you differently!

[megabytes]

So why did you call me something I'm not?

[microbrobotics]

You - you were human. You're not any more?