001 █ radio

[arkproject]

[ Sometime after radio communications are restored to people at the mall, Catherine acquires one and clicks it on, broadcasting to all receivers. ]

Sooo... what's it like out there? Seriously. Anyone who's been out-- tell me what it's like?

I'm trying to make something that can help. Oh, my name's Catherine, by the way. Nice to meet you. [ She sounds calm, even-voiced, more sincere than sarcastic. Let's face it, this is not the worst next place she could've gone after PATHOS-II. Not the best, but there's other, living humans, so Catherine can make do. She just wants to make herself useful. The objectives seem completely obvious to her, and provide an immediate direction: help everyone survive. ]

Comments

[arkproject]

I'm using a radio, same as you are? [ There's Catherine's blank 'duh' voice making its return. Maybe Simon's missed it. ]

You have realized there's no Omnitools here... right? This is 2007. There's no mall-wide system for me to be in apart from some security cameras.

[ Okay, she'll back up for him-- back way up. This is still better than having a real argument, which had seemed all too likely a possibility when she'd first heard his voice, though she was still relieved. ]

[theseuschip]

That’s not what I meant. [ He doesn’t elaborate beyond that, because even if Catherine’s Duh Voice doesn’t come as a second shot of strange, pricking relief (it does), it’s not like he’s ever been all that invested in avoiding it, or arguing against it. ]

It’s a simulation like the ARK, why wouldn’t there be a system for you to be in? There’s nobody left. Somebody has to be maintaining it as a scan from the inside somehow, right? I mean, if we’ve actually time traveled—

[ Simon has been so focused on a digital environment where the creator herself would be inside of it — while it floated in space — that the idea makes more sense to him than it probably should. More sense than it would to somebody from not-an-apocalypse, you know, without a computer floating in space full of human brain-clones with exactly one programmer on board. ]

Just... look, how do I get to you? [ impatient!! CATHERINE!!!! ]