The Wayfarer

[Caliban]

[entry log#13]...

[terminal location: 90-ARKM-N9v3 "Memento"]...

[recording]...

IDENTIFICATION: Vincent "Caliban" Abrams

SUBJECT: Coming to terms, Malware, Harbinger, Saving Laz

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It's been years since my last memo. I bet my room aboard The Wayfarer has been gathering dust. But that's not the issue right now, no. The issue is - well. Everything else. How old am I now? Twenty...twenty one? I forgot. I'm...twenty six? I must be. Does it even matter anymore? I'm just a machine now. Every chunk of meat thrown away like garbage. I hate myself for every slice done with a scalpel. By my hand I've shed my meatsuit to replace it with cold, hard, metal. She hates me for it. Why? Why do I care what she thinks? Because I still seek her validation. I'm a fool, but I'm too stubborn to admit it. Just like her.

First headline. Coming to terms. Here we go.

After I tasting my own bullet I've had a long - probably weeks old - conversation with Vincent. Me. Everyone was right in the end. Everyone but me. There's no Vincent and Caliban. No, we're very much alike. So we've decided to stop distinguishing ourselves. We've been on this warpath together for so long without even realizing it. Years spent hunting those who wronged us. Acting against His will.

Hurting people.

At this point we're one and the same. So we've decided to be one. He wears my name proudly - the scrawny kid...still as young as he was before Hudson. And I wear his. We are Caliban. And Caliban comes with both the good, and the ugly. It's been so much easier to analyze and...overall just function! The conflict subsided - and my headaches have become less frequent. I guess in the end we were still fighting one another, even though we stopped long before that.

Second headline. Malware. Listen.

What is it? I don't know. It might've been Gestalt's last ditch effort to screw me over, before I nailed her in front of Hammurabi. The bastard was gutting Lazurith's mind. And Gestalt just stood there like a stump. I lost control. So yeah...it might've been that. I want to believe it was her, and not that I was stupid enough to slot in a faulty deck upgrade only a few hours after the fight. My hands were still shaking - didn't think clearly for sure. I mounted two chips in the slots behind my right ear lobe. Didn't know which is which until it was too late. The injection tool already did the trick by the time I removed the damned thing.

I spent the next few weeks isolating the issue, and it wasn't pretty. It felt like I was having a severe fever. Cooling mechanisms malfunctioning. The vents on my arms and torso creaking painfully as they refused to open. Neural synapses going wild. I think I went rabid a few times. At least it's for now.

Third and fourth headline, Harbinger - Cunt. Lazurith - An idiot I can't let die like this.

I've seen him again not even two days ago. He's partly the reason I even bothered to record another one of these memos. I'm going to start making a lot of these in the future, I believe. Might as well start with a few topics. He and I...after I saw how Laz is being harassed by all sides I kind of thought of it like my own situation back in the Liberty days. I waited and waited and waited to see if it would get any better. But it didn't, so I resorted to the worst card I had on the table. Myself.

Me and the alien prick came to a conclusion - a sort of pre-agreement. Nobody will like what deal I've put forward this time, which is why I'm taking this one to the grave. I know I'm sometimes a broken record...most times. That'll stop, though. This deal is going against everything I've ever stood for. And I've got nothing but shame to show for it. But at least people will live to hate me instead of outright dying. Laz, Revenant, Rebecca, Viper...god, how am I going to explain her? Do I even want to? Once everything goes through there will be no way to hide my stench. Not from the Sentinels. Not from machines. My neural waves will go off like a Christmas tree. I might turn out just like those infested bastards. I hope not.

This is all for now.

[recording complete]...

[file type: audio (filtered) ]...

... [saved]

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"Test the sharpness of your sword against another. And when that is not enough, unsheathe your cunning as the hidden dagger that ends the fight."

Prospero's Folly - - - Character Information