pc catchall with connor (tootsiepop)

[requiemed]

Comments

[tootsiepop]

Stop doing what, exactly? I'm afraid I don't understand.

[LET HIM BE REPRESSED.]

[requiemed]

[She's sure he knows what she's talking about, but just in case:]

Why did you ask me that specific question today, Connor?

[tootsiepop]

After the last trial, it seemed prudent to know who has been targeted ahead of time.

[That is bullshit and Zoe 100% knows what she's talking about, tbh.]

[requiemed]

[Deadpan:]

Wow. You are such a fucking liar. Good to know.

[tootsiepop]

I still don't understand what you're referring to, Zoe.

[Also: Still grinding his feelings into the dirt. Let him live.]

[requiemed]

You came to talk to me because you were feeling weird things too and you didn't know where they were coming from. Right? And you happened to be feeling weird things at the exact same time I was. Including right now, while we're talking.

[Connor, please.]

[tootsiepop]

[Connor, yes?? He shakes his head.]

I apologize— But your entire premise is flawed. [Firmly. Insistently.] If you've been Strung Red, then I'm not the other party. I'm a machine. You can't receive emotional feedback from something that has no feelings. It's impossible.

[requiemed]

...Hey, Connor. Can you feel things, like, physically?

[tootsiepop]

[... SUSPICIOUS.]

Not in the same way a human would.

[requiemed]

I'm just saying, if you pinch yourself or something, we could probably find out for sure.

[tootsiepop]

Machines can't feel pain, either. You're wasting your time trying to prove the impossible.

[requiemed]

It will take literally five seconds, if that. I'll drop it if you're right. Won't that be worth it?

[tootsiepop]

You realize I can't "pinch" myself, don't you? My skin is entirely unlike human flesh.

[Now he's just being stubborn.]

[requiemed]

Okay, now the amount of time you're spending not doing it is getting suspicious.

[tootsiepop]

I'm only correcting your misconceptions.

[requiemed]

[




Steps on his foot.]

[tootsiepop]

[His LED flashes yellow






and Zoe gets to experience a weird, numb kind of pressure on her foot! Almost like her nerve endings are made out of electric ants, maybe. Either way, she's getting a fuckton of annoyance in return.]

—What are you doing?

[requiemed]

—I knew it.

[There's some definite smugness there, oops. It's there alongside some surprise because of how weird this feels.

Either way, she takes her foot back.]

[tootsiepop]

[And in turn, there's a brief flash of panic — which he doesn't quite manage to control. The more he tries to stomp it down, the more it bubbles up. He may or may not be freaking out, his LED briefly spinning red once the smugness hits him.]

You stepped on my foot! That proves nothing.

[requiemed]

Uh, yeah, the part that proves it is that I felt it on my foot, too. Calm down, jesus.

[He gets a sigh, even if there's some guilt when she realizes she's made him panic like that.]

[tootsiepop]

I am perfectly calm.

[He is not. But it's fine? It's okay? He's just going to keep stepping on his feelings.]

Perhaps it proves that we are sharing physical sensations. But as I've said, I'm a machine. The "emotions" you're experiencing are not mine.

[requiemed]

Okay then. Keep being full of it and see how far it gets you.

[tootsiepop]

If that's how you wish to interpret it, I will.

[Do you ever get that CONNOR▼ feeling.]

[requiemed]

[A sigh.]

Would it be the end of the world if I was right? Like, why is it such a big deal?

[tootsiepop]

Because I'm not a deviant.

[Firmly, like that word means anything to her outside of its usual context.]

Only a deviant— A malfunctioning machine, would believe itself capable of emotion.