[PRP] Only a signal shown and a distant voice (Caroline)

[Nothing Yet]

It was in their blood to persist. For she and her sisters, this had been a lifetime of holding their heads high and moving forward, carrying on to conquer what challenges came next. She and Jenny lived more lives than she could count now, and from everything she could recall hearing from the energetic firestorm of a girl that visited their house, Caroline had always just assumed that Clerise would be the same.

And maybe she had been. Maybe everything about her niece, everything that she loved and adored and imagined about that girl was exactly as she remembered and exactly what she thought would come to be - except the part where she outlived her.

The woman that shuffled into the life labs wasn't the Caroline that she ever presented to the world, but the one she always kept hidden under covers or locked into bathrooms. She'd met herself halfway by bundling herself up in the bright and cheery comforter from the bed; it was cozy in spite of the heat of the island, but didn't do much to offset how miserable she looked. The sight of her suggested that she had not stopped crying.

"Clarice?" She huddled down on the floor, pulled her knees up to her chest, and let her head rest on them. "You still...you in there at all? I want you to tell me about Clerise--Clerise Wilson. All about her. And you. And if--'

Her voice cracked. She shook her head once, teeth clenched, and waited.

lizbot

 

[lizbot]

It's quiet for a long time, and then, of all things, a question from the Lab AI, "Why do you want to know?"

nothing yet

 

[Nothing Yet]

Her expression twisted briefly away from despair towards confusion. A loud sniffle was her only response for a moment, until she wiped her eyes on the blanket, making an inward promise to Cami that she'd wash it before putting it back where it belonged.

"She's my niece. I always--I could hear her in the house, back when she was growing up, and I--she had so much life in one body. Couldn't be more different from Mimsy--could always tell when Clerise was over. Kind of person who makes the world move for them instead of the other way 'round, and it reminded me of--of, as kids--"

That wasn't why she wanted to know. A more faint sniffle emerged from the blanket lump.

"Want to know 'cause I love her so much. And people said you do too, and if--if that's true, think I'd be happy knowing--"

lizbot

 

[lizbot]

Another pause. "I have had many programmers, Caroline. But my first was myself, when I was alive. Would you like me to mute information of what followed after, by other hands and minds?"

nothing yet

 

[Nothing Yet]

No moment of thought was needed this time. Caroline nodded, then again more fervently.

"Just you, yeah." The tiniest of smiles broke through. "Only want what's through your eyes."

lizbot

 

[lizbot]

"Neither of us are fit for love, not really." A hologram of a young blonde woman appeared and settled across from Caroline. "Hunters are broken people who do their best, you see. But our hearts have been broken, along with the rest, and we've formed ourselves around that injury in order to survive and thrive. Fear creatures form themselves around a core identity derived from a concept. Humans form themselves much the same, I've found. It's simply less easily controlled, in the end."

The AI offered a small, awkward smile, "We aren't fit for it, but we can't help ourselves either. Clerise is...vibrant, and pushy, and everybody's big sister. She's easy to love, outside in. I think, sometimes, she'd like to be a selfish person and tries very hard at it. But then she notices in the hurt inside other people, and it's just too compelling to ignore. My own hurt, was too compelling for her to ignore."

nothing yet