InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Helllooo Clarice!"

Kara (deusxmachina) wrote in themandalay,
@ 2017-10-15 12:28:00

Entry tags:

kara, matt murdock

Who: Kara and Matt Murdock
Where: Hyde Lounge
What: It's time a secret was told.
When: Saturday Evening
Rating: Low

The lounge area of Hyde was blissful free of patrons. What few tourists there were, were gathered up closer to the glass on the opposite side of the bar, watching the fountain. It's periodic music and the loud sprays of water were perfect cover for the quiet conversation Kara hoped to have. The booth where they sat was against the furthest wall, shrouded and dark. Anyone looking at them might of thought they were on a date, with how sequestered they were.

But Kara had much bigger things than romance on her mind.

She and Matt had been friends for awhile now. And, she supposed, he might just suspect, or even know, that she wasn't human. She hadn't made much effort to hide her otherness while in the dangerous world they had just inhabited. But even before then...there had been clues. Still, there were so many here, it seemed, with superhuman abilities, she thought maybe she blended in. Maybe most assumed she was an enhanced human. Or even an alien, as some of them claimed to be. But Matt was her friend. She wanted to trust him with the truth.

Didn't make her any less nervous about it as she sat across from him, fiddling with her glass so much it nearly slipped from her fingers more than once.

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kitchendevil
2017-10-15 07:13 pm UTC (link)

The restaurant was an odd choice but not an unwelcome one. Everything about Vegas was crowded. You could occasionally find an island of peace at the right time, particularly in the massive Mandalay Bay. Restaurants were nearly always crowded though because all those people had to eat. People didn’t come to this place to eat clearly. The draw to this place was the water show that kept people as close to the windows as possible.

The isolation combined with the regular misting of water meant that he couldn’t confidently order some delicious plate he could smell on some other table. Hardly a high price for some privacy. Matt passed his menu over to Kara. “My usual tricks won’t work here, I’m afraid you’ll have to read the menu to me. Don’t bother with the whole thing just a few things you think I might like.” They had enough meals together Kara knew his tastes.

He listened but not just to the words she said. Kara didn’t make the usual noises he used to read people. There were noises that came from her but he honestly wasn’t sure what those noises correlated to. He would need a better understanding of engineering to understand and it wouldn’t help because the noises weren’t connected to her emotions really.

No, her emotions came out in other ways. Mostly her emotions were in her voice but then there were some changes to the way she moved, like today. The fidgeting was something he hadn’t heard very often, “You rarely show your nerves. Is everything okay Kara?”

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deusxmachina
2017-10-15 07:28 pm UTC (link)

Kara was all too happy to read the menu for Matt, though she felt a bit guilty as she took it from him. She should have considered how the constant water spray would affect his particular vision, and she hadn't. The menu at this place wasn't particularly extensive, but it would do. Besides, they weren't really here to eat.

"I suppose. I just have something to tell you and I'm not entirely sure how you'll react to it." People didn't react to things the way she expected them to, here. With so much strangeness, she wondered if her own...situation...would seem almost pedestrian by comparison.

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kitchendevil
2017-10-15 08:03 pm UTC (link)

“Do you think I’ll react badly?” While the thought should have concerned him Matt could only think of how much trouble he had gotten himself into in New Vegas and a small smile formed, “You have me very curious now. I cannot imagine what might be worse than a message from your blind friend that spent most of the month fighting groups of psychotic killers in some alternate dimension and finally decided he was stabbed bad enough that he really should ask someone for some medical attention.”

He laughed, “I sort of hoped that Frank would get to me first because he wouldn’t try to put a tracker on me for my stupidity.” He kept the joking manner even while his expression sobered, “I was very lucky it was you instead of him though.”

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deusxmachina
2017-10-15 09:02 pm UTC (link)

"I'd rather you called me sooner and not later, all things considered," Kara said, a bit sniffily. She liked Matt. But she didn't exactly approve of his after hours hobby. He was only human, after all, regardless of what edge his senses gave him in a fight. He was human and susceptible to broken bones, burst blood vessels, torn ligaments, disembowelment...she would have much preferred he left such activities to the less vulnerable, but she knew better than to argue the point with him. Some men had to fight. Matt was one of them.

"And I don't know how you'll react," she said honestly. "I've never told anyone before. The one person who did know about my situation seemed intent on killing me for it. Why he took pity I'll never know." She gave him a searching look that she wasn't certain if he could see in the dim interior of the restaurant and decided no time like the present. "I'm not...human...you see."

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kitchendevil
2017-10-15 09:50 pm UTC (link)

He leaned across the table, “Are you sure about that?” The question was moot based on her revelation so before Kara could answer he waved off any response and leaned back, “I do know that you’re not like humans. I’ve known that since the first time we were in the same room together.”

“How do you think I fight?” He didn’t pause for her to answer, instead, he reached up and removed his glasses. “People are noisy creatures really. There is all of that breathing, the heartbeat, the digestive system and that doesn’t even begin to cover the smaller sounds of their footsteps and the way clothing moves against skin. All of these sounds combine with the smells and paint a picture clearer than anything most people see.” Cabinets and posts were more dangerous even if he didn’t get his bruises from them.

“You’ve never been like that though. You don’t have any of those systems, do you? You breathe sometimes but then other times you do not. Sometimes I can hear a pumping sound but it’s not at all like a heart. Honestly can’t make any sense of the the noises that come from inside you at all. I have to focus on the smaller sounds, the clothes moving the pitch of your voice. Even then though you can be uncannily quiet. The way you teach those kids though, that is very human. The way you care for everyone is better than most of the people I know.”

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deusxmachina
2017-10-17 09:17 pm UTC (link)

He knew so much more than he realized, she supposed. Once she said the words he would probably say oh, I should have guessed, it's so obvious. She reached out and laid her hand lightly on his, wanting to create a point of contact that would be more real that the limited vision he had of her.

"I appreciate you saying that. And I do know. I've known I was alive from the moment I opened my eyes, or thought I did anyway. But, there's an important distinction, and I haven't told anyone, and I want to tell you. To..." See? The only other person who'd ever known what she was had reacted with surprise to her humanity rather than her inhumanity. This would be the opposite she supposed. But she trusted Matt. She trusted him to not react negatively. His words alone gave her confidence that she could tell him she was really an alien or mystical being or a stack of children in a trench coat and he would most likely be okay with it. She pulled up a programmed response she had, as yet, not had call to use. Her voice, for a moment, lost some of its humanity, falling back into the programmed cadences that had been her nature, fresh out of the box.

"I am a 3rd Generation AX400 Android. I can look after your house, do the cooking, mind the kids. I organize your appointments. I speak 300 languages and I am entirely at your disposal as a sexual partner. No need to feed me or recharge me. I am equipped with a quantic battery that makes me autonomous for 173 years."

She sighed and relaxed. "That's what I might have told you, if you'd gotten me the "proper" way, at least."

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kitchendevil
2017-10-22 09:28 pm UTC (link)

He knew that she wasn’t human but Matt had not really tried to guess at what Kara might be. Anything might be possible. This little adventure in Las Vegas consistently made them expand what was within the realm of possibility. He had never imagined that she was something so heartbreaking as that autonomous voice that listed out the ways she could be put to use as a slave.

His hand reflexively squeezed Kara’s, “Oh Kara,” Matt bowed his head and took a deep breath, “ You should never have had to say those words.” The words were disgusting enough but the underlying connotation was a whole new history of small-minded pain, torment and flat out slavery. People clearly couldn’t change. Afterall Kara was the third generation in “That way will never be proper. I’m so glad this place found you instead”

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deusxmachina
2017-10-22 09:39 pm UTC (link)

"I am too," she said simply. "I'm...not supposed to be this way. It's a glitch in my programing, something...wrong or off when I was made. My creator, well, he almost put me down. I guess he had pity." She was looking down at the table, but she squeezed his hand in return, taking comfort in the small gesture.

"You were my first friend here. I wanted you to know. You deserved to know. That I'm not..." she hesitated on the word, the one that had caused her so much pain on so many occasions, but never so much as in those first few moments of existence, "...alive."

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