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!"

Comments

[microbrobotics]

I'm not joking! I just - I want to know!

[megabytes]

I don't have anything to tell you!

[microbrobotics]

I saw it! You're human, I know you are!

[megabytes]

Hiro, stop it!

[He doesn't want this to be happening. He still doesn't really know how to have this conversation, especially not like this. He doesn't know how to deal with this, he doesn't know what to do, he just wants it to stop and go back and not happen so everything can be normal again.]

[microbrobotics]

W-why is this such a hard thing to talk about? I'm right, aren't I? I know I am. I could feel you ... you ...

[ Dying, is what he wants to say, but he bites it back at the last second. ]

[megabytes]

[Hiro. You just answered your own question. ...mostly.]

I-I said stop. Please.

[microbrobotics]

Okay, I'll stop ...

But - but I know, Megaman. I can't not figure it out after all that.

[megabytes]

T-there's nothing to figure out, I don't know what...

[Still trying so very very hard to "salvage" this whole mess, even though it's painfully obvious it's a lost cause. Of course, no amount of faking in the world is gonna make Hiro magically forget everything, though it probably does make it clear that Megaman knows exactly what Hiro's talking about...and that he doesn't want Hiro to know.

Megaman is a terrible liar.]

[microbrobotics]

Why do you want to keep it secret so badly?

[megabytes]

[He just sobs. He's scared to answer - if he answers, if he acknowledges this, he makes it something real. Answering means admitting he can't "fix" this.]

I...I don't...

[microbrobotics]

[ Hiro relents again, just leaning in to hold Megaman tighter. He doesn't want the navi to be this upset. He just wanted to know what was going on... ]

Either way, you're one of my best friends.

[megabytes]

[Megaman, on the other hand, just tries to pull away. He doesn't want to be here anymore. He wants to be as far away from this conversation as he can possibly get.]

...s'gonna be different...

[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.