. .. IC Contact | Duplicity .. .

[konstant]

                                                                 

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[hippie_ninja]

"Will you tell me the Baseline script someday? All of it?" Because the few things he's heard are intriguing, because it's important to K, and also because there are pieces of it he wants to answer for K. Like how it feels to touch finger to finger. Like what it feels like to be loved.

[konstant]

It's not something he's ever been asked before either. Most humans don't even know it exists, of course, which isn't their fault but they wouldn't have asked in Los Angeles anyway.

Now he looks at Jesus, curious. "Yes, but - why?"

[hippie_ninja]

"It's important to you. Almost a part of you, in a way." The way K uses it to steady himself, to assess himself. "Is that okay? You don't have to if you don't want to."

[konstant]

"I don't... know," he admits, but in the way that he would have answered if he'd been asked what a banana tastes like before coming here. Not hesitant, necessarily, just completely without the information.

"I've never tried to explain it to anyone before. Or share it."

[hippie_ninja]

He can understand that. "What does it mean to you now that you don't have to repeat it to anyone?"

[konstant]

He has to think about it, has to try and frame it in a way that isn't tied strictly to a small white room with a camera and a mechanical voice coming out of the wall. During this time they have to climb up a hill and K gives Jesus his hand back for balance, but he stays close.

"It feels closer to... a prayer, sometimes. Or a set of rules you set for yourself."

[hippie_ninja]

"Like a mantra," Jesus says thoughtfully. "Or a koan almost. I like that."

He may not like that it was once the line between K being retired or being sent back out to risk his life, but he likes what it means to K now.

[konstant]

"Sometimes," he agrees. Sometimes not.

But he can't help but smile a little at the mention of a koan, even if it doesn't last longer than the top of the hill.

"Names change things. Maybe it will change this."

[hippie_ninja]

"Maybe for the better." They don't know. They can't know unless they do something about it.

When he has his hand back he pickpockets K's phone, though, and changes his screenname as they walk, well aware K will see him doing it. Names change things and he noticed they both changed theirs back to default.

[konstant]

K watches, but makes no move to stop him or take it back. Just peers curiously at the screen, waiting patiently to be handed it back.

"If you told anyone in Los Angeles that you loved a replicant - if you meant it - you'd be charged with a misdemeanor. If you tried to do anything about it, it could be a felony." Just so Jesus knows why it's so strange for K to hear, to know.

"What are we, to you?"

[hippie_ninja]

"I've never been good friends with the law." He offers the phone back, new screenname and all.

"You're my lover." And the word has extra weight when the 'love' is actually meant. "You're special to me. What word do you want to use?"

[konstant]

"I thought we were good friends?" he teases, a gentle reminder that K himself never forgets: he was the law.

"I don't even know what the options are. Or how much we'd even want to risk changing what... Is."