Inbox: Mask or Menace

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"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!"

Comments

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[There's another short wait before Megaman opens it, but open it he does. He's just. Quietly hoping he's being overly paranoid about this. Plus he can't really think of a good reason to say "no" anyway - he already blew his shot at "I'm not feeling well."]

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[ A few moments later, Hiro turns up in Megaman's comm. He looks around to see if the navi is inside his comm or outside the viewscreen... ]

Megaman?

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[He's already inside; he has been the entire time, honestly, now that enough of the toxin is out of his system to not cause bug alerts anymore. Much, much better than being in the real world and dealing with all the physical effects. He's already had his lifetime's worth of tachycardia scares, okay.]

H-hey. [He feels so awkward right now.] How are you feeling...?

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[ That makes it simple, at least. He's still a litlte unsure though, given the subject he's about to broach on top of everything else...

He responds to that question with a diagnostic readout - everything okay. ]

Better. Much better. You?

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[He does genuinely smile at that, at least. He's relieved that Hiro's doing so well, relatively speaking, especially with everything that happened to him. That had been scarier than he'd ever wanted it to be.

He pings back with diagnostics of his own - no bugs, no glitches, no errors.]

Same. I'm glad you're okay.

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[ It helps that nothing really compares to trying to murder Callaghan ... he's already lived through his own private hell. So as terrible as this all was, he's not doing so badly now.

He sighs a bit in relief when he sees there aren't any errors. ]

It wasn't so bad, comparatively. And I had you.

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...I still should've been with you sooner.

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You're with me now.

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But I wasn't when you needed me.

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Megaman ... I'd have gotten in trouble no matter what.

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Yeah, but I could've kept you from getting hurt.

[Sorry Hiro. You're his operator now, and that means taking care of you is one of his primary functions - one that Megaman doesn't handle messing up at well.]

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[ Hiro hesitates for a moment. Then he reaches out to hug Megaman gently, pinging status: okay over and over again. ]

I'm okay now. And I know you're gonna keep looking out for me.

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[Megaman silently leans into the hug, wrapping his arms around Hiro and squeezing tight. He's okay, Hiro's okay and he has a chance to fix things. He can be better next time. He will be better next time.

He waits until there's a gap or pause in those status pings, then sends some data of his own: speaker's surrogate operator == speaker's operator, and a flurry of emotion data, worry and stress and anxiety and fond exasperation.

I swear, you're just as bad as he is.]

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[ He doesn't quite get all the nuances of that last part, given how limited his understanding of data pings are right now. But the sentiment shines through easily enough right from that equivalency statement. He laughs a little, not unkindly. ]

We can't be that bad.

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You're right - you're even worse. You have no idea what the two of you put me through.

[Said with the most resigned tone. He clearly can't do anything to stop their crazy, he just as to run with it and do damage control. Not that he's even remotely as upset by that as he acts; if Hiro and Lan weren't finding new ways to get in trouble or scare Megaman witless, they just wouldn't be them.]

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[ More worrying if they're not getting in trouble, right? Hiro shakes his head a little. ]

Long as we come back at the end of the day, right?

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[If they aren't getting into trouble then something is seriously wrong. That or they're planning something, which is an even bigger cause for concern, really.]

Yeah. Preferably intact. [He squeezes Hiro a bit.] It's a good thing navis can't have heart attacks, or you'd have killed me a dozen times over all on your own.

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[ Hiro opens his mouth to say something sassy back to that ... and then pauses. Heart attacks. Ah. That was why he wanted to talk to Megaman in the first place. He pauses for a moment, unsure of how to work up to this. ]

Navis can't, huh. Humans can.

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[Crap.

Megaman flinches, and tries to cover it up with a chuckle. Gotta stay calm, just. Pretend everything's normal. He's got this.]

As far as I know. You're the human, you tell me!

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I've never had any problems with my heart.

But you have.

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[OH GOD.

OH GOD NO.

QUICK, DEFLECT! DEFLECT!]

Hiro, I just said we can't. It's not physically possible.

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For a navi. Not a human.

[ He edges closer now, not letting Megaman retreat. ]

You ... you were human, weren't you?

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W-what?

[He still shrinks back, as much as he can. Regardless of the conversation topic, this isn't a position he likes to be in, especially with someone taller than him. He is so very not comfortable right now - he is a thousand kinds of uncomfortable.]

I-I...Hiro, I told you how I was programmed. Remember? [Not a yes, not a no.]

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[ Sorry, Megaman. He tries to give the navi at least a little space, but ... dammit, he needs to know. ]

I remember what I saw at the swear-in. Those were memories.

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I don't...this isn't funny, Hiro!