The Core: The First Guest

40. Rain and imagination

I knew that George was able to hear what I said regardless of where he was or what he was doing while I was inside my VR home so I spent a little bit of time recounting my adventure to go shopping at the Core and the subsequent illegal incarceration at the hands of Magus the 2nd.

Tutor clapped her hands and laughed as I recounted my experience with the Tela child who decided that she wanted to copy my attempts at flying and skydiving. She was in a good mood until I got to the part about the lockdown and how I got caught.

Physically, Tutor didn't get angry, she just sat there listening intently. Inwardly and externally, her emotions displayed as part of the weather. I could tell that both her and George were having difficulty hearing my tale once I got to the part where Regeth had captured me and turned me over to Magus. The light outside slowly lessened and the sky darkened, causing the sky to rumble with thunder and occasional flashes of lightning.

Tutor played it off as though it was just a natural weather cycle set up by her and George as she got up to close the glass doors behind the curtains when it started to rain. It didn't matter what her words were however because I could see the difference in her coding as she climbed back on her chair, hugging her legs. I could see both of my AI's emotions boiling in the background of the VR home. I hadn't realized that my AI could feel emotions like what I was witnessing. George's emotional response was entirely different from Tutor's, at least at the fundamental level. His looked as if it would flash out in bursts to lessen the internal pressure being built up the longer I told the tale. Tutor's on the other hand... It was a slow steady increase in pressure and was reflective on the weather, a steady downpour to George's violent bursts of electrical death.

It wasn't until I told of how things began to improve that the rain finally started to ease up with only occasional rumblings in the background.

George's interest went up when I spoke about how I found the new cr density and Tutor's interest went down. It seemed that Tutor was more interested in the experience side of the story while George found the science part to be fascinating. When I finished my story, ending with my experience with the Leva, Tutor sat lost in thought for a few moments before she asked me about things that were on her mind.

She was most interested in the emotional change that came over Magus the 15th after a certain point. She asked me a couple of times to recount how he acted after he had his robot limbs removed and how quiet he seemed to be after that point.

"What is the interest in Magus the 15th for Tutor?" I asked her.

"Oh... something just doesn't add up. He is a Magus. Yes, he is a 15th generation copy and all... but he still is based on the original Magus's personality. While the memories aren't carried over to each copy, the personality traits are. The threatening matches up because his line has always been in power. He should have been trying to talk you or any nearby convict into releasing him, either by bribery or through violence, instead.... Instead, he was just observing you." Tutor replied before going silent for a little while.

"We need to pick up Silver's sister as fast as possible, she might be able to simulate what is going to happen. She has countless observations on the Magus personality profile that would tell why he did what he did. To me, it just stands out as a red warning flag. Either for revenge or it was something that he did without you knowing." She mused while I got up and stretched.

"Yes, I really want to get away from this system. I have the data on where to pick up Silver's sister so we will head that way first," I said as I sent it to both George and Tutor before continuing. "On the way, I would like to see if we can swing by a star to try to harvest some more improved cr for me to clad our habitat in. Also... so that I don't feel like a little girl will come to drag me off to a tea party the next time I am out walking around in real life."