[It's the same arguments. The same lack of nuance, the same one-track focus, except Arid's lost even that much drive, and he's lost the patience to pretend he doesn't care. He doesn't know what else he expected. He doesn't know why, except that she'd... she'd questioned. Asked him for help. Asked about responsibility, and made choices, real ones. She'd acknowledged they were hard.
Arid's pilot would always take priority. He'd known that from the start. But there had been something more than that, the last time they'd talked. He'd risked everything-- lost everything-- protecting that assumption, and it's painful learning just how... just how faulty he had really been.]
...
[The mainframe's face flickers blankly on the display, silence drawing out. For a moment, it seems like he's done. She's right. He might as well shut down, at least with this. With her.
But.]
I did.
[The correction is minor. Unspeakably so, compared to the gap of bitterness and sheer frustration standing between them. But...]
no subject
Arid's pilot would always take priority. He'd known that from the start. But there had been something more than that, the last time they'd talked. He'd risked everything-- lost everything-- protecting that assumption, and it's painful learning just how... just how faulty he had really been.]
...
[The mainframe's face flickers blankly on the display, silence drawing out. For a moment, it seems like he's done. She's right. He might as well shut down, at least with this. With her.
But.]
I did.
[The correction is minor. Unspeakably so, compared to the gap of bitterness and sheer frustration standing between them. But...]
...
Arid. Access your logs.
Summarize our last interaction on file.