More than ones and zeros (Prompto and Cor)

[chocobobutt]

They'd told him he was faulty.

Well, that's not strictly true, other people had been told he was faulty and that he wasn't suitable for combat (even though his shooting was excellent), but he'd been there at the time and that sort of counted - at least, it was the only way he was ever told anything, anyway.

They'd said he was to be decommissioned. He didn't know what decommissioned was, but he knew it was something a trooper didn't come back from. There were a lot of things a trooper didn't come back from, though, so at least he didn't know enough to be scared. Mostly, he was curious.

Maybe that was the problem. None of the others seemed to ever be curious. He was just supposed to follow orders, he wasn't supposed to know what why meant, let alone ask it.

It had been easier, before, being raised the same as all the others, given the same instructions. None of the others had talked, so he didn't either - but he did listen. He listened, and he learned - not much, just bits and pieces here and there, things that meant nothing to him and things that sounded interesting. Anything from state secrets to petty dramas between colleagues, and he didn't know one from the other truth be told, didn't know enough about the world to slot any of it into places that fit - he just liked to hear people talk. It made him feel less... lonely.

Another problem. He never realised he wasn't meant to feel anything at all.

Whatever decommissioning was or wasn't, he never had the chance to find out, though, because while he was being transported from one end of the facility to the other, the vehicle carrying him was hijacked. He didn't know it at the time - his armour had been deactivated, rendering him practically blind and barely able to move, and all he could hear was the sounds of a fight and then the vehicle was moving again - and it seemed like it was going much, much further than just the other end of the facility...

After a long journey and some disorienting moves, he becomes aware that someone is activating the release catches on his helmet, and he barely has chance to react before he's wincing at the sudden flood of painfully bright light (it's not overly bright, it just seems it after so long in darkness) - followed immediately by an uncomfortably loud clatter as whoever removed his helmet drops it.

"Holy shit." somebody in front of him breathes, as he's still trying to adjust to the light.

"Get... get Marshal Leonis. He should see this."

Comments

[immortalmarshal]

Cor understood that this undercover reconnaissance mission was vital. This was their moment: a Magitek Trooper was being decommissioned for being 'faulty'. A perfect thing to steal, sneak back to Insomnia, and study at all angles to figure out how those...'things' are put together; how they work; and what exactly can make one of them be 'faulty. It's why he oversaw most if not almost all the steps, from planning to execution to arriving back at the Citadel safely.

When he was giving the initial report to the King, he thought that it would be the last time he'd see the trooper in one piece. He almost regretted it, for he had always wondered if there was anything like a humanoid face beneath that metal helmet. That is, until he got the call from the lab about some kind of shocking discovery.

Cor excused himself to head back down to the labs, taking care to run himself thru all the security check points properly. His mind whirled at what kind of discovery they could've made, but none would be so wild as to walk into that examination room...and see a pair of blue eyes peering out from a freckled face.

"What the fuck--?!" he catches himself before turning to the head scientist. "Are you saying that he is the very trooper we snatched?" Not 'it', not 'them', but 'he'...a person.

Three weeks later...

[chocobobutt]

It's been three weeks since the faulty trooper was sent home with Marshal Leonis and they have been the strangest three weeks of his life.

Everything is new, everything is interesting - though it takes him some time before he expresses that through anything other than silent curiosity in his eyes. He sleeps in a room that doesn't contain a dozen other troopers. In a bed. He learns to eat food - bland and basic at first, so he doesn't get sick - and dress in normal clothes instead of armour. It's a few days before he's over the initial culture shock of even those most basic things, a few days of just following Cor around or sitting quietly and waiting to be told what to do, of having to be taught everything.

He gets a name, he isn't really sure what the problem with 05953234 is but apparently it's not right to call a person that. They test his reflexes and, after some debate about safety, they test his shooting as well - he's fast, and after that somebody suggests they call him Prompto. He doesn't have any reason to object, so the name sticks, even if it takes him a little while to really think of the name as his.

Periodically, he's taken back to the lab for further testing, which is about the closest to normality (for him) that he gets at any point. Sometimes they ask questions. He answers them, as best he can, and he has no idea if his answers are helpful or not.

(He knows less about how the MTs actually worked than they hoped, though he's able to give them some information. He also accidentally spills at least two imperial military secrets, and several completely useless pieces of personal information about the scientists who'd been working on him)

They tell him he's a clone. He doesn't really know what to do with that information so he just nods - he does that a lot, in the lab. It's familiar, so it's easy to fall back on old habits there, to just sit still and quiet and do as he's told.

Outside the lab, though, he's different, he starts to come out of his shell. It doesn't happen right away, at first he's just the same outside the lab as in it; he never speaks without being spoken to, never does anything without being told to do it, never chooses anything - he responds to questions about what he wants with polite confusion at the very concept. After a week or so, though, it starts to change.

It's tiny things at first - Cor asks him if he wants to try something new for dinner and he nods shyly, he puts a hoodie on when he gets cold instead of just silently suffering until Cor notices and tells him to, he finally starts to use the word I - little hints that he's starting to open up and explore this strange new life and all the freedoms it contains.

There's bigger things, too, more of his own personality beginning to shine through. They pass a field of chocobos on the drive to the lab and Prompto will watch them until they're out of sight every time. He tries a cheeseburger for the first time and nearly cries at how good it is.

(He also eats it too fast and makes himself sick, but as he's sitting in the bathroom experiencing the grossness of throwing up for the first time, he mumbles "worth it")

He has a small collection of clothes now, just a few shirts and jeans and a couple of hoodies, and he's been taught about the concept of a laundry basket - except he hasn't, yet, been taught what to do when all of your shirts have ended up there, so one morning he hits a stumbling block when getting dressed and, after some internal deliberation, he goes in search of Cor. He's shirtless, but he's at least got pants on. This time.

(Prompto, of course, has no concept of modesty, and part of 'learning about clothes' had ended up including 'learning about not wandering the apartment naked after a shower' one memorable morning a few days in.)