"Dead to Me" - Reboot.Exe - S2 Chapter 15

## Dead to Me

Jenn

"Dead to Me" is the fifteenth episode of the second season in Reboot.exe. It was released on 26 November 2022 and is narrated by Dave.

## Episode Synopsis

The ride containing Seb, Pr0, Eve, Oscar and Nyla pulls up to a large, sprawling city tower that is joined in the middle by a column that spreads across a river. The party doesn't take a grand amount of time to admire the beautiful hotel before ushering themselves into a winding elevator, that houses a drone butler, who offers them refreshments, alcoholic and not. Seb, Oscar and Nyla all order a drink, Seb asking for the strongest they have. Nyla, noticing Pr0's discomfort, suggests that he takes a look beyond the life he's known and tries to appreciate the beauty of the city at face value. Pr0 agrees that it is pretty, but it's hard to see it beyond all the suffering he's endured and caused others to endure before making it here.

Oscar encourages them to drop the "death of humanity" talk, and enjoy their night. The elevator door opens and they all walk out into a stunning room filled with large planter pots arranged around the hall. Suggested to be the most beautiful place any of them have ever seen, including Seb. The corporate garden of Edan.

As they continue to filter in, Pr0 notices that the people in the city even have pets, but ones of extinct nature. one person is walking around with a Tasmanian tiger on a leash. They begin to prepare themselves to join the crowd and rebuild their reputation. Eve decides to act completely within her realm as a drone and hide any signs of deviancy, Seb downs another martini and plasters a fake smile on his face, and Pr0 chooses to follow Seb at a distance, preferring to stay back and observational. As Pr0 begins to take in his surroundings, he grows increasingly anxious and out of his element. He excuses himself to the bathroom to "refuel." As Pr0 enters the gender neutral bathroom, he comes across two incredibly giddy women who are also there to take more than a few drugs. The drugs they are snorting are held up on a golden tray by their personal drone. Pr0 sneaks behind them, and enters a private stall. Pr0 was so successful in "diagnosing" how much he would need to take, that his tiredness fades away, his eyes dilate and he bursts up with energy. As Pr0 walks out of the stall where he meets the two giddy ladies who are still there with the drone, and offer him some of theirs. He politely refuses, and suggests hell be back later. They smile, telling him that there probably won't be any left.

Pr0 turns to another drone in the bathroom, who appears to be an attendant, and asks him to look him over, seeing if he is looking well. The drone wipes his cheek, adjusts his suit, and even rips some threads that were keeping things in the wrong place. It then straightens up and says he looks wonderful. The drone has been silent the whole time, and instead has been communicating through a screen on its face.

Pr0 leaves the bathroom and begins to scout around the edges of the room. Pr0 first notices a incredibly thin woman who appears to be around 50-60 years of age. She is wearing a formal uniform adorned with medals. She looks incredibly natural otherwise. No dyed hair, no piercings. The second person Pr0 notices is a middle age Japanese man that is artificially handsome due to enhancement surgeries being followed around by a pair of Geisha. The next person Pr0 spots is a small girl, appearing around six or seven in age who is surrounded by people she has clearly surrounded herself with before, and is drinking excessively. To the point where it looks like she is actively trying to harm herself.

Seb wasn't able to gauge as much from the audience as Pr0 was, but he does spot Raggs, looking incredibly unkempt and even more out of place. Seb also notices a Bespoke woman who he has never seen before. A beautiful, tall woman wearing an elegant ball gown with high heels. She has unnatural elf ears and gold jewelry that is all claspable, as bespoke wouldn't be able to have natural piercings.

Eve is unsuccessful in her pursuit of finding any unnatural acting drones, but instead spots Uriel and Gabrielle who both look like they don't want to be there. She also spots Isaac and Persia a while down the hall.

Seb decides to send a drink to the new Bespoke lady as Pr0 and he reconvene. Pr0 asks Seb if he knows anything about the people that he has marked as people of interest. Seb is able to identify the woman with medals as Nani Heisman (spelling unconfirmed) as the chief of police who has an incredibly good reputation in the city. Seb doesn't recognize the man parading around with the Geishas, but does recognize the symbols on the Geisha's robes as a Japanese robotic / car company, not seemingly related to NuYou. Seb surprisingly is able to nail down who the alcoholic child is, and names her as Phoenix Baker who is really one of the oldest and most powerful men in the city. He is a corporates financier and has been rebooted more than any known living person in the world. He is only still allowed in the city due to how influential he is. A powerful, incredibly wealthy man. He is known to kill himself for fun and shock value. Examples being that he would host a one night stand, only to pull a gun to his head, and send the partner away for murder.

As Seb and Pr0 continue discussing people around the hall, a gentle hand touches the back of Seb's arm. He turns to see the bespoke he bought the drink for. He introduces himself, and she does as well, as Nightingale. Seb asks how she found herself in Melbourne this evening, and she reveals that she's tonight's entertainment. She also asks for Pr0's name, which he answers as Peter. Eve, who has been standing back, observing to see if she could see anything odd. Eve is able to decipher that there is an act of performance. Some inconsistent behaviors, unsure smiles, and almost as if she is playing some sort of joke on them. She excuses herself to continue mingling. Seb asks Pr0 to look up any person that they encounter this night. Pr0 runs a background check on her quickly, and spots inconsistencies in her backstory and timelines, as if it all seems freshly fabricated.

As the night continues, Seb walks around and attempts to boast about the charitable work he has been doing in the slums in attempts to get people to donate. This is only met with equal and over boasting about other rich people's charitable actions.

Eve is able to notice a few people that have seamless cybernetics that are stalking through the crowd with precision. The reason they stood out so well to Eve was the fact that they aren't pretending to be in the upper echelon. They are all wearing cold, professional suits and smug expressions. Eve is able to see that nearly their entire bodies are cybernetic. Inside and out. A sense of fear washes over Eve as she recognizes one o the cold faces in the crowd. A young girl with short blond hair and striking blue eyes. Eve has found Riley.

Eve quickly approaches Pr0, and tells him that there are corp. assassins walking around, and that one of them is Riley. As Pr0 finally locates her within the crowd, his vision splits and overlays as a laugh in the back of his mind plays menacingly. Pr0 goes to find Seb and asks for his assistance in getting Riley for a private conversation. Seb starts walking up to her, but is interrupted by Raggs, who looks incredibly unhappy to see him. Seb explains that he is incredibly busy and in need of meeting with someone. Raggs grabs his arm, but Seb shakes it off, continuing his walk towards Riley.

Seb meets up with Riley, introducing himself. She is entirely uninterested and doesn't respond. He invites her to enjoy a drink. She coldly responds that she doesn't have a meeting with him. He replies saying that he saw her from across the hall and was enchanted by her, and just wanted to introduce himself to her, and is wanting to talk more. Seb is charming enough that he manages to get her to follow him somewhere more private, which is a balcony outside. Seb asks her what she's doing there tonight. She replies that she's here for business, and that he knows that. She says that he knows what she does, otherwise they wouldn't be out there together. Seb admits that he brought her out here for an ulterior motive, but he is in need of security after his experiences in the slums. After Seb discloses this information, he can clearly see that she herself has run a background check on him. She asks him again what he wants from her. Seb stalls for a little while longer before he flags down Pr0 to come talk with her. Pr0 approaches her on incredibly shaky legs.

Riley's expression remains impassive. As Pr0 continually creeps forward, pressure and static begins to grow in his head as Bagrov grows more excited. Pr0 speaks up, by saying "You're the one who gave me my nickname. Do you remember?" Insensitively, Riley ignores Pr0, and instead turns to Seb, asking "Who have you brought me, and how have we wronged him?" Pr0 says both of his names. Riley shows no signs of recognition. Pr0 steps closer to her, a bit out of desperation. She quickly snaps back, speed clearly enhanced by cybernetics. She also pulls into a defensive posture. Pr0 quickly relaxes, not wanting to come off as threatening. He does step in front of the door to stretch out any time he has with her. He asks her if she's on the circle's time now, knowing that they wouldn't let her go, as she was too useful. Pr0 then looks to her, asking her if she remembers Bagrov and Canaan. She replies "of course," Pr0 then discloses that Bagrov has been his mental passenger for a while now. Pr0 spits that "Just 'cause he's in here, doesn't mean I'm ont me. And just 'cause you're fucking buried, doesn't mean I can't pull you out." As Pr0 was monologuing, Seb noticed that Riley made an incredibly subtle motion that alerted a bunch of people in suits who begin hastily making their way out to the balcony. Seb notices this and informs Pr0 of the approaching danger. Riley steps close to Pr0, grabs his face with her hand, strokes his cheek, looks directly into his eyes, and says: "I'll get you out of there, honey." Then walks away with a smile after Pr0 does the exact same. Riley and the other corps begin communicating silently and they inform each other that they'll be seeing one another again soon.

Pr0 steps against the balcony and catches his breath. Seb brings up that they need to begin taking care of the Bagrov situation very soon. Especially now that Pr0 is beginning to lose control of his cybernetic limbs. As Pr0 and Seb deliberate a little while longer, Pr0 begins to suspect that Riley's memories of Pr0 have been completely wiped. He begins plotting an idea to upload memories back into Riley.

Eve's phone begins behaving strangely. A few aps are forcibly deleted and then the number pad pulls up, and begins dialing a number. Eve puts it on speaker, the mysterious caller is the one that was called. He asks why they would stir up the hornets nest, when they were specifically advised to sit pretty and quiet tonight. The caller then informs them that there has been a bounty placed on Pr0, a low one, but it is dead or alive. The caller suggests three things for their next course of action. They either: Stay in the city and get as safe and secure as possible, leave the city and break any and all contact. Go dark, don't approach anyone, and achieve your mission. Kill the girl, take out Canaan, or have Pr0 be rebooted. Gain a completely new identity and erase who Peter / Pr0 is, was, and ever could be. The less tasteful option the caller suggests is that Pr0 just dies, as he hasn't taken to any of his suggestions so far. The caller then says that he measure his time in hours. Maybe a few days, and then hangs up to return to the party.

Isaac walks out to the balcony and asks what they're all doing out on the balcony instead of enjoying the party. They pull a few excuses of being anxious before Isaac invites them all back in, as the entertainment is just about to begin.

They walk inside to glasses being clinked, clapping, and a hush falling over the crowd as Isaac walks up to the center stage and begins announcing tonight's entertainment and the entire reason why they have all gathered here. The crowd initially erupts with disaproving laughter when Isaac mentions that there is a slummer, but he hushes their disdain by reassuring them that she has been ascended.

Curtains peel from the side, and single microphone raises from the ground, and outsteps Miss Nightingale. After a brief moment of nervousness, she takes in a breath, and begins to serenade the audience with a beautiful operatic song that is quickly remixed into modern singing which gets the crowd incredibly excited. After her song, Isaac throws his arm around her, and congratulates her as the newest citizen of Australia.

After about 10 minutes, Nightingale approaches Seb, Pr0 and Eve again, suppressing a grin. Pr0 smiles, congratulating her on a wonderful performance. He leans closer to her, asking how much of "our" Songbird is in that Nightingale. Much to his glee, she responds that all of it, perhaps even more. Pr0 reminds her of the fire that's in there and the reason she was chosen in the first place. To keep fighting. She responds with disdain, saying that every other one fo them will be as lucky as she has been, and hopefully with less fighting. No more little Amirs. Pr0 looks to her seriously and calls her a tool of their propaganda and that she can't let them let her forget where she came from and what she had to suffer for. She suggests to Pr0 that he consider the same, that he is choosing to suffer when he has been offered so many positions in the city. Nightingale then looks to him sincerely, saying that she deserves this after suffering for her whole life. Pr0 agrees, but for the fact that she deserved it for being who she was, not that she deserves it for the person they made her into. He knows who she is, and tells her to fight for that. She asks what he thinks they did to her. She confirms that she isn't fighting anything. He says that she had to fight for survival against a system that was built against her in the first place. They were the reason she had to suffer in the slums. She once again confirms that who he thinks she is, she still is. And that she's not going anywhere. They then exchange contact information to keep in touch. She tells him to enjoy his night, and try to look at ways he can begin improving his life. Choosing to suffer and break open a fake smile isn't a way of life, and that he's allowed to let himself feel good.

As they begin to wind down for the night, and just as they are getting ready to leave for the night, eye contact is made again with Seb and Raggs. Seb sighs, and walks up to him assuring that this will be quick.

Raggs's disdain is hard to keep contained as they approach him. Raags "congratulats" him on how well he's been able to placate and silence the slums. and how he's effectivly ruined everything Raags was rioting for. Seb reminds Raggs of the death toll that these riots were causing, and he responds that he simply doesn't care. He believes that death is a natural cause of life and self betterment, and Seb has effectively ruined everything. Raggs wishes him luck on his venture in slaying the giant, immortal beast while he will move on to his personal plan B.

-YHTris

## TL;DR

* The ride containing Seb, Pr0, Eve, Oscar and Nyla pulls up to a large, sprawling city tower that is joined in the middle by a column that spreads across a river.
* Nyla, noticing Pr0's discomfort, suggests that he takes a look beyond the life he's known and tries to appreciate the beauty of the city at face value. Pr0 agrees that it is pretty, but it's hard to see it beyond all the suffering he's endured and caused others to endure before making it here.
* As they continue to filter in, Pr0 notices that the people in the city even have pets, but ones of extinct nature. one person is walking around with a Tasmanian tiger on a leash. They begin to prepare themselves to join the crowd and rebuild their reputation.
* As Pr0 begins to take in his surroundings, he grows increasingly anxious and out of his element. He excuses himself to the bathroom to "refuel." Pr0 enters a private stall. Pr0 was so successful in "diagnosing" how much he would need to take, that his tiredness fades away, his eyes dilate and he bursts up with energy.
* Pr0 leaves the bathroom and begins to scout around the edges of the room. Pr0 first notices a incredibly thin woman who appears to be around 50-60 years of age. She is wearing a formal uniform adorned with medals. She looks incredibly natural otherwise. No dyed hair, no piercings. The second person Pr0 notices is a middle age Japanese man that is artificially handsome due to enhancement surgeries being followed around by a pair of Geisha. The next person Pr0 spots is a small girl, appearing around six or seven in age who is surrounded by people she has clearly surrounded herself with before, and is drinking excessively. To the point where it looks like she is actively trying to harm herself.
* Seb wasn't able to gauge as much from the audience as Pr0 was, but he does spot Raggs, looking incredibly unkempt and even more out of place. Seb also notices a Bespoke woman who he has never seen before. A beautiful, tall woman wearing an elegant ball gown with high heels. She has unnatural elf ears.
* Seb decides to send a drink to the new Bespoke lady as Pr0 and he reconvene.
* As Seb and Pr0 continue discussing people around the hall, a gentle hand touches the back of Seb's arm. He turns to see the bespoke he bought the drink for. He introduces himself, and she does as well, as Nightingale. Seb asks how she found herself in Melbourne this evening, and she reveals that she's tonight's entertainment.
* As the night continues, Seb walks around and attempts to boast about the charitable work he has been doing in the slums in attempts to get people to donate. This is only met with equal and over boasting about other rich people's charitable actions.
* Eve is able to notice a few people that have seamless cybernetics that are stalking through the crowd with precision. Eve is able to see that nearly their entire bodies are cybernetic. Inside and out. A sense of fear washes over Eve as she recognizes one of the cold faces in the crowd. A young girl with short blond hair and striking blue eyes. Eve has found Riley.
* Eve quickly approaches Pr0, and tells him that there are corp. assassins walking around, and that one of them is Riley. As Pr0 finally locates her within the crowd, his vision splits and overlays as a laugh in the back of his mind plays menacingly.
* Pr0 goes to find Seb and asks for his assistance in getting Riley for a private conversation. Seb starts walking up to her, but is interrupted by Raggs, who looks incredibly unhappy to see him. Seb explains that he is incredibly busy and in need of meeting with someone. Raggs grabs his arm, but Seb shakes it off, continuing his walk towards Riley.
* Seb meets up with Riley, introducing himself. She is entirely uninterested and doesn't respond. He invites her to enjoy a drink. Seb is charming enough that he manages to get her to follow him somewhere more private, which is a balcony outside.
* Seb asks her what she's doing there tonight. She replies that she's here for business, and that he knows that. She says that he knows what she does, otherwise they wouldn't be out there together. Seb admits that he brought her out here for an ulterior motive and stalls for a little while longer before he flags down Pr0 to come talk with her. Pr0 approaches her on incredibly shaky legs.
* Riley's expression remains impassive. As Pr0 continually creeps forward, pressure and static begins to grow in his head as Bagrov grows more excited. Pr0 speaks up, by saying "You're the one who gave me my nickname. Do you remember?" Insensitively, Riley ignores Pr0, and instead turns to Seb, asking "Who have you brought me, and how have we wronged him?" Riley shows no signs of recognition.
* He asks her if she's on the circle's time now, knowing that they wouldn't let her go, as she was too useful. Pr0 then looks to her, asking her if she remembers Bagrov and Canaan. She replies "of course," Pr0 then discloses that Bagrov has been his mental passenger for a while now. Pr0 spits that "Just 'cause he's in here, doesn't mean I'm not me. And just 'cause you're fucking buried, doesn't mean I can't pull you out."
* As Pr0 was monologuing, Seb noticed that Riley made an incredibly subtle motion that alerted a bunch of people in suits who begin hastily making their way out to the balcony. Seb notices this and informs Pr0 of the approaching danger. Riley steps close to Pr0, grabs his face with her hand, strokes his cheek, looks directly into his eyes, and says: "I'll get you out of there, honey."
* Seb brings up that they need to begin taking care of the Bagrov situation very soon. Especially now that Pr0 is beginning to lose control of his cybernetic limbs. As Pr0 and Seb deliberate a little while longer, Pr0 begins to suspect that Riley's memories of Pr0 have been completely wiped. He begins plotting an idea to upload memories back into Riley.
* Eve's phone begins behaving strangely. A few aps are forcibly deleted and then the number pad pulls up, and begins dialing a number. Eve puts it on speaker, the mysterious caller is the one that was called. He asks why they would stir up the hornets’ nest, when they were specifically advised to sit pretty and quiet tonight.
* The caller then informs them that there has been a bounty placed on Pr0, a low one, but it is dead or alive. The caller suggests three things for their next course of action. They are either: Stay in the city and get as safe and secure as possible, leave the city and break any and all contact, go dark, don't approach anyone, and achieve your mission. Kill the girl, take out Canaan, or have Pr0 be rebooted. Gain a completely new identity. The caller then says that he measure his time in hours. Maybe a few days, and then hangs up to return to the party.
* Isaac walks out to the balcony and asks what they're all doing out on the balcony instead of enjoying the party. They pull a few excuses of being anxious before Isaac invites them all back in, as the entertainment is just about to begin.
* They walk inside to glasses being clinked, clapping, and a hush falling over the crowd as Isaac walks up to the center stage and begins announcing tonight's entertainment and the entire reason why they have all gathered here.
* Curtains peel from the side, and single microphone raises from the ground, and outsteps Miss Nightingale. After her song, Isaac throws his arm around her, and congratulates her as the newest citizen of Australia.
* After about 10 minutes, Nightingale approaches Seb, Pr0 and Eve again, suppressing a grin. Pr0 smiles, congratulating her on a wonderful performance. He leans closer to her, asking how much of "our" Songbird is in that Nightingale. Much to his glee, she responds that all of it, perhaps even more.
* Pr0 reminds her of the fire that's in there and the reason she was chosen in the first place. To keep fighting. She responds with disdain, saying that every other one of them will be as lucky as she has been, and hopefully with less fighting. Pr0 looks to her seriously and calls her a tool of their propaganda and that she can't let them let her forget where she came from and what she had to suffer for.
* She asks what he thinks they did to her. She confirms that she isn't fighting for anything. He says that she had to fight for survival against a system that was built against her in the first place. They were the reason she had to suffer in the slums. She once again confirms that who he thinks she is, she still is. And that she's not going anywhere. They then exchange contact information to keep in touch.
* As they begin to wind down for the night, and just as they are getting ready to leave for the night, eye contact is made again with Seb and Raggs. Seb sighs and walks up to him assuring that this will be quick.
* Raggs's disdain is hard to keep contained as they approach him. Raags "congratulates" him on how well he's been able to placate and silence the slums. and how he's effectively ruined everything Raags was rioting for. Raggs wishes him luck on his venture in slaying the giant, immortal beast while he will move on to his personal plan B.

-YHT