Red Rubies
[replay:Roadhog's log; 20160701-2349-Red_Rubies-advice_warranted]
[I observe as he sits in front of me silently. He does not speak. I do not ask questions. If you may wonder how do I ‘ask’ a question, Winston gave my hologram projection function a boost. It is capable of projecting a question as a hologram in the air, LED beam projection. He finds it—he said ‘compelling’—that if a map can be projected with a hologram initiation, then other things should function just the same. Athena agrees as well, that I deserve an ‘upgrade’. I have been told to test out this function because it could significantly increase my opportunity to interact with humans. However this person in particular, is much more silent than the previous one.]
“Hnngh.”
[He grunts behind his mask again. I do not know if he is unwell because he coughs a lot. I do not know how he found me either. I have not met a person like him before.]
“I’m a One Man Apocalypse.”
[He has repeated this for the third time. It was all he said. I do not know what does he want, nor what he needs me to help him with. My system alerts are tingling as though suppressed by consciousness. But… I do not have conscious.]
[He scratches the back of his head, coughs again. He does not speak. It has been going on for five minutes. The time on my interface continues to count after 5:01. I believe he could be waiting for me to strike a question at him. I rotate my interface to the hologram function; it switches on my camera eye to an electric teal before it glows stronger. He places his hook on the table and watches in what could be said as ‘amazement’, even though I cannot verify that since I do not see his facial features. I enter the keys to form the question before I sent it through the hologram, electronic beams casting out of my eye as it slowly forms the letters and words in the air before him.]
I ask: ‘Can I help you?’
[He leans back now, away from the table. He grabs the dirty sack he left on the ground ever since he sat down, his hand searched for something inside. I watch patiently. When he was done, he pulled it out of the bag and clasped it in his hand. I could not see it.]
“Fawkes.”
[He spoke behind the mask. It was difficult to make out what he was saying but the recording system lets me rerun the analysis of his speech time and time again until I could capture the right syllabuses.]
“Split loot from merc run. Split ways at King’s Row. Found these—red things.”
[When he opens his hand, it was a pile of red things. Squishy, fleshy, some even smashed into a pulp and stained his fingers. Systems scanning—analysis found: Fraises des bois—strawberries of the wood, wild strawberries. Category marked: Preference, group list: Soldier: 76. Classification: Strike Commander of ex-Overwatch. I had to catalogue the information immediately because that is how the systems work on automatic. I hologram the answer to him because it would seem that he does not know what they are.]
I say: ‘Fraises des bois, also known as ‘Strawberries of the Wood’; ‘Wild Strawberries’.’
“Rubies. Fawkes.”
[I could not tell if he understood what I just tried to explain to him but did not interrupt his sentence.]
“Fawkes likes rubies. Jewels, gold, diamonds. Has a thing for sparkly sparkle.”
“I wanted to use the loot money from merc run to buy these, but old lady didn’t want to sell them to me. Wanted to get them for Fawkes.”
“Said awful things. Horrible things. Said things that made me really angry.”
[He dropped the Fraises des Bois on the table and clenched his fist tightly, then slammed it against the surface. He grunted words that were hard to make out even with my analyzer. It sounded like snorting and growling, grunting. I do not interrupt him again. He calmed down after a minute, based on the interface the time running was 12:33.]
“I plundered her garden in the night. I pulled out all of the red rubies from her garden. I dug the soil of the red rubies and destroyed all of the seeds. I made a big mess—hehheheh—of the soil. I broke her fence, I burnt it all. Then I grab the red rubies, stuffed them into my sack and went home. Fawkes was asleep. He didn’t know what I did.”
“Wanted to give him red rubies—but couldn’t.”
[His voice lowered here. The analyzer picked up a lower reverberation and it was harder to collect the sound waves. But my analyzer also picked up the change of his body posture—his shoulders slouched forward more, his head dropped, his back hunched. Based on behavioral theory it was a sign of displeasure, disappointment, unhappiness.]
“Old lady wasn’t wrong about me. I didn’t look normal. She said I look like a bad guy. She isn’t wrong either. She said she will not sell red rubies to bad people.”
“I said it was for a friend. She said bad people only make friends with other bad people. She said Fawkes was bad! I got upset and bashed up her garden. Fawkes isn’t bad. People just don’t understand him.”
[I learnt through my database that he was referring to a man, a partner-in-crime, namely known as Junkrat from the international news broadcasts of pursuits after them.]
“Jamie is my friend. Although he can be difficult, he has always taken care of the both of us. Radiated. Radiation messed him up somewhere too. But he would not let anyone hurt him or us. Nothing stands in his way. He will blow up any obstacles in his way. He will always stand tall for what he wants and what he will never stop to do. And even though I had only thought of him as good business at the start…”
[He paused and coughed. Then he remains silent, even though his voice was different—could almost be described as 'tender'—just a sentence ago.]
[The silence continues for a few moments more and I decided maybe I should give him a word of advice. This was why he came here, perhaps. He wanted to feel less awful for what he has done. I could turn him in with the persecution on them, but I myself should cease to exist in the eyes of law too. It is not easy to learn to cope with having feelings—the studies about humans. It cannot be dissected into analogies and theories in general, and it will always vary largely with each individual. The database is endless of them. Here he could be a wanted person, but it does not discard his other capabilities of being human. Perhaps, this was what Winston meant he once told me as well—‘humans will always be conflicted with how they feel, what they feel and what they do upon it.’]
So I say: ‘Give him the red rubies because he will be happy to receive them. Jamie is your friend.’
[He coughs a little more before he starts to stash all of the remaining Fraises des bois on the table away into his sack. But he left one on the table, one tiny one.]
“Jamie is my only family. He is all I will ever care for in another person that’s left. Remains of my humanity.” [He then points at the tiny Fraises des bois.] “But you are a good fella too. Jamie might not think so, ...but you're okay for the scrap pile you are.”
[He picked up the sack and left with it. He did not look back again. I think Junkrat found a good mate. Roadhog is his name. And he thinks I am pile of metal scrap.]
[Strawberries; Category marked: Preference, group list: Soldier: 76, Junkrat. Classification: Strike Commander of ex-Overwatch, Mercenary.]
[end:Roadhog's log; 20160702-0007-Red_Rubies-advice_warranted]