Chapter Six: Secrets In Hidden Folders
Connecting to another Reploid was sort of like stepping into cyberspace—one appeared as a holographic version of themselves in a massive almost vacuum-like space, and although one did not see a hologram of the connected, their conscious was constantly around and one just felt them. This 'feeling of each other' was what brought rise to the intimacy of the action; you felt what they felt, saw and heard their thoughts, and nothing was hidden from you.
Zero walked the plane that was X's mind, although he knew he simply could 'think' the command prompts to bring up X's hard drive and directories.
/ What do you know, you are air-headed, / Zero thought to X.
He felt X physically scoff, and that was something he wasn't expecting. In fact, now if Zero focused, he could feel X's armor on X's body, the jumpsuit underneath, even the threads of hair in X's scalp.
// Will you get out of my sensory directory? You know how awkward that is? // X's voice filled the space.
/Now I do./
// If you're going to dig around my brain then I'm going to dig around yours. //
Zero felt himself panic then. / Wait, X! Hang on! /
Too late, he could 'feel' X touchdown in his own mind. The real weird part was in a way, he both existed in X's mind and his own, and was seeing two things at once… and yet it didn't faze him at all.
// Do your thing, I'm just poking around, // Zero 'saw' X's hologram wave a hand passively, and when Zero made a move, his sight was snapped back into X's mind.
/ Okay, so what data did Delia yank? / Zero asked as he lifted his hand, and lists and lists of data and folders appeared before him.
// Personality directory. //
/ X, our personality directories are huge. It'd take me hours to download your entire directory. /
// That's all I know. //
Zero thumbed through the files, even as he felt X do the same. / X… just don't… going snooping where I feel uncomfortable, okay? /
// Likewise. //
And that was that. Trust. Zero nodded and shuffled through the sub-directories and individual files, but nothing exactly jumped at him. With a sigh, Zero highlighted the main personality directory and set himself to download.
In the meantime, he rifled through X's other files, immediately stopping and moving on whenever he felt X tense. Thankfully, X also did the same, skipping over whenever Zero shifted uncomfortably. It almost seemed like a singular thing, standing in the expanse of your friend's mind 'by yourself' and yet, there was an intense closeness of going through their data, and them through your own, and knowing everything…
// You wash your hair six times a day? Doesn't water get in your circuits? //
/ Teflon. /
// Oh. //
/ And if you recall, X, as long as you keep your 'skin' unbroken, the seals repel water. But it does get dirty. What, don't you shower? Wait, yes, you do. /
// Don't go through my sensory records! //
/ Aw, X, you use a pink bath poof. /
// Zero, you realize, even if it's through my eyes, you are watching me bathe? //
That didn't disturb Zero in the least, but for X's comfort, he stopped viewing. He checked his download time, and noticed it was downloading at an incredible speed. Before he could ponder that, the answer presented itself: X had pulled down all of his protective mechanisms, allowing full access to himself.
Suddenly, Zero felt even more special and privileged. He knew this sort of thing was intimate between Reploids, but it was only now, experiencing it, he truly realized why. All protections were down, and you were just you and everything about you was totally bare. Zero felt naked as he realized X also had unlimited, full access to his own self. While they both were in such control of each other, they were also at the complete mercy of each other.
The surge of the realization sent such fire through Zero it made X gasp, and in turn, Zero felt his shock. He was a nano-second too late to try and stem the raw emotion flowing from him into X via their connection, and he couldn't just disconnect.
// Z-Zero… //
/ Sorry. I guess this whole experience wasn't at all what I thought. I got a little… excited. /
// I could tell … //
Zero's hologram facepalmed itself, and he wasn't sure what exactly poured into X those few seconds of chaos. X showed no signs of disgust or anything negative, so it couldn't be so bad.
// Why would I be disgusted, Zero? //
/ I'm a man of many talents, many secrets… /
Before X could reply, Zero instead tapped into X's audio records and played his recording of Song of Memory. It filled both of their minds like a comforting echo, and X physically slouched slightly as the song removed all tension that somehow formed between them.
Zero himself let the music relax him as he waited for the downloading to finish. He felt something on his physical shoulder, and when he used his own sensory circuits to open one eye to look, X had rested his head on Zero's shoulder.
// You know, that's sort of awkward to see from your point of view. //
/ Why? /
// Well I feel it, but now I can see it like this… //
There was nothing that indicated X was uncomfortable with what his body was doing, and Zero let him stay that way and closed that eye. The data was done downloading, and Zero sought to terminate the connection so he could work on the data.
// Wait. Stay connected. Just in case. //
/ In case of what? /
// Something does go wrong. // X sounded so worried, Zero couldn't bring himself to tease.
Instead, Zero did withdraw back into himself, but X remained where he was in Zero. This shifted the feeling of the connection: it was now all in X's power and he was in total control, with Zero at his mercy only. It was almost uncomfortable, but Zero trusted X, and that trust wasn't misplaced.
When he thought that, Zero felt something come from X that made him physically smile. He let himself savor a few moments of that shared emotion before getting to work and opening the downloaded directory.
The data was encoded, and in such a way that baffled Zero. As a Maverick Hunter, Zero wasn't just trained to hack and slash at Mavericks—he also was taught how to break and decipher codes. He was no Alia, and though Zero was quite proud of his knowledge in the field, the data before him actually intimidated him.
// Zero… //
/ It's cool. /
Zero set to the task of carefully decoding the data. Unlike the pregnancy simulation, which ran a common decoder, Zero took the time to study each piece of data before attempting it. This slow, meticulous work proved fruitful—the smaller bytes of data were decoded and nothing happened.
What the data revealed was nothing new to Zero—X was a deep thinker and was almost a philosopher in his own right, he always looked at the brighter side of things and was optimistic, things about X Zero already knew was all he was uncovering. None of it went aggressive on him.
Still ever careful, Zero then tackled the largest bit of data. However, the instant he attempted to decode it, it flared to life and made Zero cringe away. All previously decoded data was immediately deleted, and what wasn't decoded scrambled itself. The large file that started this then sent out pulses that, because Zero was left open due to the connection, pierced right through Zero and into every bit of data it could reach.
// No! Zero! //
/ Holy shit…! /
Zero prepared himself for the worse—if what Delia said was true, that it not only corrupted her simulation program but fried the chip, he was in for a lot of pain.
Seconds ticked by and still the aggressive piece of data pulsated, but nothing… painful happened. Instead, it swept through Zero as if trying to encounter something, but when nothing happened, the data simply deleted itself.
Despite it being his best friend's data and that it did nothing, Zero was still shaken. His entire being was unprotected; who knows what could have happened if it considered him a threat or it encountered what it was looking for in his systems?
// Zero…? Zero! //
/ I'm fine… it didn't do anything. /
// I'm disconnecting. Pull the plug when I'm gone. //
/ Y-yeah. /
When the feeling of X vanished, Zero opened his eyes and pulled his plug out, letting the wire recoil back into the compartment. With shaking hands, he closed it, even as X opened his own eyes and sat up, closing his partition as well.
"What happened?" X asked.
"You didn't feel it?"
"Not a damn thing… all I felt was your panic and fear." X put a hand on Zero's shoulder. "I'm sorry. That was stupidly dangerous."
Zero shrugged before putting his hand over X's. "It's all right, nothing bad happened. I can assume since I wasn't really forcing a decode, it didn't view me as a potential threat."
X shook his head, but Zero wouldn't hear any more of it. "Other than that, X, you're fine, completely clean. It's just a safety mechanism, and a damn good one at that. We can assume my mysterious origins actually saved my ass this time."
His friend sighed, resting his forehead against Zero's hand that covered his own on Zero's shoulder. Minutes of silence went by as they recovered from the scare.
Zero had to break it. "So," he smirked. "Was it… as good for you as it was me?"
X chuckled, lifting his head, his eyes shining. Was he close to crying? "It was definitely different."
Zero blinked. "You never did this before?"
"Nope. Not with anyone. You're my first."
So in a sense I just de-virgin'ed X?
Zero smirked. "Aw, really?"
"Have you?"
"No way."
X made the joke this time. "So we deflowered each other!"
Zero shoved at X playfully. "You're a pervert."
X smiled, and Zero could tell he was trying hard to still get over the scare. At least his eyes didn't look ready to spill tears. Impulsively, Zero brought X close and embraced him. It only seemed appropriate after what they shared.
They may be robots in the eyes of humans, but humans would never achieve the closeness Zero and X just did—the ability to see each other's mind unblocked, each other's hearts and, in a sense, each other's soul. Something just… clicked in those minutes.
X was humming Song of Memory under his breath as they hugged, and Zero found it also appropriate. He also had no intention of letting go anytime soon, even as the realization of what they'd done crashed into his mind. They may have done it because they were concerned and were best friends, but in the back of Zero's mind, he wanted it simply for the fact he wanted to be closer to X. The shock of it all was, while he was in X's mind, he felt something akin to his own wants.
So just maybe…
Zero tried not to get his hopes up just yet, and instead opted to enjoy his current moment. X rested in his friend's arms with nary a protest because he too was deep in thought.
That surge of emotion. Zero, you…
<--- PREVIOUS CHAPTER NEXT CHAPTER --->
Connecting to another Reploid was sort of like stepping into cyberspace—one appeared as a holographic version of themselves in a massive almost vacuum-like space, and although one did not see a hologram of the connected, their conscious was constantly around and one just felt them. This 'feeling of each other' was what brought rise to the intimacy of the action; you felt what they felt, saw and heard their thoughts, and nothing was hidden from you.
Zero walked the plane that was X's mind, although he knew he simply could 'think' the command prompts to bring up X's hard drive and directories.
/ What do you know, you are air-headed, / Zero thought to X.
He felt X physically scoff, and that was something he wasn't expecting. In fact, now if Zero focused, he could feel X's armor on X's body, the jumpsuit underneath, even the threads of hair in X's scalp.
// Will you get out of my sensory directory? You know how awkward that is? // X's voice filled the space.
/Now I do./
// If you're going to dig around my brain then I'm going to dig around yours. //
Zero felt himself panic then. / Wait, X! Hang on! /
Too late, he could 'feel' X touchdown in his own mind. The real weird part was in a way, he both existed in X's mind and his own, and was seeing two things at once… and yet it didn't faze him at all.
// Do your thing, I'm just poking around, // Zero 'saw' X's hologram wave a hand passively, and when Zero made a move, his sight was snapped back into X's mind.
/ Okay, so what data did Delia yank? / Zero asked as he lifted his hand, and lists and lists of data and folders appeared before him.
// Personality directory. //
/ X, our personality directories are huge. It'd take me hours to download your entire directory. /
// That's all I know. //
Zero thumbed through the files, even as he felt X do the same. / X… just don't… going snooping where I feel uncomfortable, okay? /
// Likewise. //
And that was that. Trust. Zero nodded and shuffled through the sub-directories and individual files, but nothing exactly jumped at him. With a sigh, Zero highlighted the main personality directory and set himself to download.
In the meantime, he rifled through X's other files, immediately stopping and moving on whenever he felt X tense. Thankfully, X also did the same, skipping over whenever Zero shifted uncomfortably. It almost seemed like a singular thing, standing in the expanse of your friend's mind 'by yourself' and yet, there was an intense closeness of going through their data, and them through your own, and knowing everything…
// You wash your hair six times a day? Doesn't water get in your circuits? //
/ Teflon. /
// Oh. //
/ And if you recall, X, as long as you keep your 'skin' unbroken, the seals repel water. But it does get dirty. What, don't you shower? Wait, yes, you do. /
// Don't go through my sensory records! //
/ Aw, X, you use a pink bath poof. /
// Zero, you realize, even if it's through my eyes, you are watching me bathe? //
That didn't disturb Zero in the least, but for X's comfort, he stopped viewing. He checked his download time, and noticed it was downloading at an incredible speed. Before he could ponder that, the answer presented itself: X had pulled down all of his protective mechanisms, allowing full access to himself.
Suddenly, Zero felt even more special and privileged. He knew this sort of thing was intimate between Reploids, but it was only now, experiencing it, he truly realized why. All protections were down, and you were just you and everything about you was totally bare. Zero felt naked as he realized X also had unlimited, full access to his own self. While they both were in such control of each other, they were also at the complete mercy of each other.
The surge of the realization sent such fire through Zero it made X gasp, and in turn, Zero felt his shock. He was a nano-second too late to try and stem the raw emotion flowing from him into X via their connection, and he couldn't just disconnect.
// Z-Zero… //
/ Sorry. I guess this whole experience wasn't at all what I thought. I got a little… excited. /
// I could tell … //
Zero's hologram facepalmed itself, and he wasn't sure what exactly poured into X those few seconds of chaos. X showed no signs of disgust or anything negative, so it couldn't be so bad.
// Why would I be disgusted, Zero? //
/ I'm a man of many talents, many secrets… /
Before X could reply, Zero instead tapped into X's audio records and played his recording of Song of Memory. It filled both of their minds like a comforting echo, and X physically slouched slightly as the song removed all tension that somehow formed between them.
Zero himself let the music relax him as he waited for the downloading to finish. He felt something on his physical shoulder, and when he used his own sensory circuits to open one eye to look, X had rested his head on Zero's shoulder.
// You know, that's sort of awkward to see from your point of view. //
/ Why? /
// Well I feel it, but now I can see it like this… //
There was nothing that indicated X was uncomfortable with what his body was doing, and Zero let him stay that way and closed that eye. The data was done downloading, and Zero sought to terminate the connection so he could work on the data.
// Wait. Stay connected. Just in case. //
/ In case of what? /
// Something does go wrong. // X sounded so worried, Zero couldn't bring himself to tease.
Instead, Zero did withdraw back into himself, but X remained where he was in Zero. This shifted the feeling of the connection: it was now all in X's power and he was in total control, with Zero at his mercy only. It was almost uncomfortable, but Zero trusted X, and that trust wasn't misplaced.
When he thought that, Zero felt something come from X that made him physically smile. He let himself savor a few moments of that shared emotion before getting to work and opening the downloaded directory.
The data was encoded, and in such a way that baffled Zero. As a Maverick Hunter, Zero wasn't just trained to hack and slash at Mavericks—he also was taught how to break and decipher codes. He was no Alia, and though Zero was quite proud of his knowledge in the field, the data before him actually intimidated him.
// Zero… //
/ It's cool. /
Zero set to the task of carefully decoding the data. Unlike the pregnancy simulation, which ran a common decoder, Zero took the time to study each piece of data before attempting it. This slow, meticulous work proved fruitful—the smaller bytes of data were decoded and nothing happened.
What the data revealed was nothing new to Zero—X was a deep thinker and was almost a philosopher in his own right, he always looked at the brighter side of things and was optimistic, things about X Zero already knew was all he was uncovering. None of it went aggressive on him.
Still ever careful, Zero then tackled the largest bit of data. However, the instant he attempted to decode it, it flared to life and made Zero cringe away. All previously decoded data was immediately deleted, and what wasn't decoded scrambled itself. The large file that started this then sent out pulses that, because Zero was left open due to the connection, pierced right through Zero and into every bit of data it could reach.
// No! Zero! //
/ Holy shit…! /
Zero prepared himself for the worse—if what Delia said was true, that it not only corrupted her simulation program but fried the chip, he was in for a lot of pain.
Seconds ticked by and still the aggressive piece of data pulsated, but nothing… painful happened. Instead, it swept through Zero as if trying to encounter something, but when nothing happened, the data simply deleted itself.
Despite it being his best friend's data and that it did nothing, Zero was still shaken. His entire being was unprotected; who knows what could have happened if it considered him a threat or it encountered what it was looking for in his systems?
// Zero…? Zero! //
/ I'm fine… it didn't do anything. /
// I'm disconnecting. Pull the plug when I'm gone. //
/ Y-yeah. /
When the feeling of X vanished, Zero opened his eyes and pulled his plug out, letting the wire recoil back into the compartment. With shaking hands, he closed it, even as X opened his own eyes and sat up, closing his partition as well.
"What happened?" X asked.
"You didn't feel it?"
"Not a damn thing… all I felt was your panic and fear." X put a hand on Zero's shoulder. "I'm sorry. That was stupidly dangerous."
Zero shrugged before putting his hand over X's. "It's all right, nothing bad happened. I can assume since I wasn't really forcing a decode, it didn't view me as a potential threat."
X shook his head, but Zero wouldn't hear any more of it. "Other than that, X, you're fine, completely clean. It's just a safety mechanism, and a damn good one at that. We can assume my mysterious origins actually saved my ass this time."
His friend sighed, resting his forehead against Zero's hand that covered his own on Zero's shoulder. Minutes of silence went by as they recovered from the scare.
Zero had to break it. "So," he smirked. "Was it… as good for you as it was me?"
X chuckled, lifting his head, his eyes shining. Was he close to crying? "It was definitely different."
Zero blinked. "You never did this before?"
"Nope. Not with anyone. You're my first."
So in a sense I just de-virgin'ed X?
Zero smirked. "Aw, really?"
"Have you?"
"No way."
X made the joke this time. "So we deflowered each other!"
Zero shoved at X playfully. "You're a pervert."
X smiled, and Zero could tell he was trying hard to still get over the scare. At least his eyes didn't look ready to spill tears. Impulsively, Zero brought X close and embraced him. It only seemed appropriate after what they shared.
They may be robots in the eyes of humans, but humans would never achieve the closeness Zero and X just did—the ability to see each other's mind unblocked, each other's hearts and, in a sense, each other's soul. Something just… clicked in those minutes.
X was humming Song of Memory under his breath as they hugged, and Zero found it also appropriate. He also had no intention of letting go anytime soon, even as the realization of what they'd done crashed into his mind. They may have done it because they were concerned and were best friends, but in the back of Zero's mind, he wanted it simply for the fact he wanted to be closer to X. The shock of it all was, while he was in X's mind, he felt something akin to his own wants.
So just maybe…
Zero tried not to get his hopes up just yet, and instead opted to enjoy his current moment. X rested in his friend's arms with nary a protest because he too was deep in thought.
That surge of emotion. Zero, you…
<--- PREVIOUS CHAPTER NEXT CHAPTER --->