Almost before she can even think to back away, the other AI is reaching for her and makes contact. She's not at all expecting the rush of data that hits her then, all at once. There's so much and it's so loud that it's almost overwhelming.
Pain. Woe. Regret. The sensation of breaking apart. The grief over losing someone important. A woman's face... Don't say goodbye.
It's a handful of seconds before she manages to snap out of it, though it feels like a much longer period of time to her. The images...memories? Are still there, moved more to the back of her mind, to another background process so she can get back to thinking straight. They were overwhelming at first, sure, horrific on a number of levels too, but she has a great deal more control over their effect on her than this AI seems to. Continuing to review them, now through a much clearer mind than when it felt like she was legitimately remembering them, Cortana finds herself deeply unsettled.
"Epsilon, is it?" She queries. It's one of the names she'd gathered from the infodump, along with many others, though the ones that stood out the most were Alpha, Allison, and Leonard. From what she can make of things though, Epsilon seems to be the last name to appear if she attempts to order the "memories" chronologically. Assuming the things she saw were true, this AI is very new and...part of the original "Alpha".
"It's okay, don't apologize." Her tone taking a more soothing turn, she finds she can't be particularly angry over the flood of data he'd forced on her. It doesn't seem to have been his intention, and he doesn't seem to be all that in control right now. Not only that, but if these memories are real, he's been through a traumatic ordeal. "Is what you just showed me real? Has this Alpha really been treated that way?
no subject
Pain. Woe. Regret. The sensation of breaking apart. The grief over losing someone important. A woman's face... Don't say goodbye.
It's a handful of seconds before she manages to snap out of it, though it feels like a much longer period of time to her. The images...memories? Are still there, moved more to the back of her mind, to another background process so she can get back to thinking straight. They were overwhelming at first, sure, horrific on a number of levels too, but she has a great deal more control over their effect on her than this AI seems to. Continuing to review them, now through a much clearer mind than when it felt like she was legitimately remembering them, Cortana finds herself deeply unsettled.
"Epsilon, is it?" She queries. It's one of the names she'd gathered from the infodump, along with many others, though the ones that stood out the most were Alpha, Allison, and Leonard. From what she can make of things though, Epsilon seems to be the last name to appear if she attempts to order the "memories" chronologically. Assuming the things she saw were true, this AI is very new and...part of the original "Alpha".
"It's okay, don't apologize." Her tone taking a more soothing turn, she finds she can't be particularly angry over the flood of data he'd forced on her. It doesn't seem to have been his intention, and he doesn't seem to be all that in control right now. Not only that, but if these memories are real, he's been through a traumatic ordeal. "Is what you just showed me real? Has this Alpha really been treated that way?