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]

[ He makes a "cross my heart" gesture across his chest. ]

I promise. It'll be our secret.

[megabytes]

Good. G-good, I...I...

[And that's about where he finally hits his limit. A whimper is the only warning Hiro gets; one second Megaman's standing a couple steps away, and the next Hiro's gonna find himself with an armful of navi flopped against him.

He still really doesn't want to be here, and he's still very uncomfortable with the way Hiro made him feel trapped earlier, but both of those are overridden by the fact that he just really, really needs an operator to take care of him right now.]

[microbrobotics]

[ Hiro's just a kid himself, but he sure does feel bad about causing all this. That means he'll do everything he can to try and make Megaman happy again. He holds the Navi close, just holding on as tight as he can. ]

Hey, you've got me too. I'm your surrogate operator, right?

[megabytes]

[He tenses up when Hiro puts his arms around him, but he doesn't try to pull away again. He needs the contact too much right now. As long as Hiro doesn't do anything to make him feel cornered again, he'll stay put.]

Y-yeah. Yeah, I know, I just...

[That's just kind of part of the problem, here.]

[microbrobotics]

Just what?

[ He leans his head against Megaman's shoulder, gently. ]

[megabytes]

Y-you're gonna think about it now.

[microbrobotics]

Not that much.

[megabytes]

Doesn't matter. You're gonna think about it. [He lets out a shaky whimper.] I won't be normal anymore.

[microbrobotics]

Dude, you weren't normal to me to begin with. We don't really have anything like navis back home.

[megabytes]

But you thought I was normal for a navi.

[microbrobotics]

Why do you care so much about being normal? I'm not normal.

[megabytes]

[He buries his face in Hiro's shoulder as best as he can.]

'Cause I'm the only one that worked.

[microbrobotics]

... What do you mean?

[megabytes]

I told you before. I was the only navi from the project that worked. I was the only one whose DNA donor wasn't their operator. That's how dad figured out what happened, and he cancelled the project so it wouldn't happen to anybody else.

I'm the only one.

[microbrobotics]

...

It's hard feeling alone like that.

[megabytes]

I hate it. It feels like I'm always doing or saying something weird, there's always someone who has to say I'm strange or unique or creepy or too human or something.

[microbrobotics]

I don't think you're any of those things. Except unique, maybe, but that's not a bad thing?

I can't, really. There's nothing "normal" for me to compare you to. You and Magicman are just different.

[megabytes]

You don't need anything to compare me to now. You know I'm not normal.

[microbrobotics]

Then I guess we match, huh?

[megabytes]

I guess...

[No offense, Hiro, he's just looking at this from the perspective of "being a small lonely genius VS dying and then coming back to life as an AI" so. It's not really clicking with him where you're coming from just yet.]

[microbrobotics]

[ The scale is pretty damn different. But perhaps the isolation isn't so much. ]

Do you trust me?

[megabytes]

Of course I do!

[microbrobotics]

Then trust me. We're partners in this. I won't let you down.

[megabytes]

...okay. 'm gonna hold you to that.

[He leans into Hiro a bit. Honestly...it helps, hearing it like that.]

...Hiro? Could we stay here for a bit?

[microbrobotics]

'course. I don't mind.

[ He will fluff up some of the data so that they have a nice comfy place to sit in, though. ]

Teach me more of that data pinging while we're here.