As the lift descended, Grosser looked over the shop. He was growing more nervous by the second. Something kept nagging at him; telling him that this was a bad idea and he should get out of here. [i]Why the fuck am I so scared?[/i] he thought to himself. [i]I'm an experienced fucking soldier. Getting a check up should be a piece of cake.[/i] If he were still in his original body, Grosser was sure he'd have been shaking in fear by the time the lift came to a stop. Fortunately, this new morph was a lot better at faking calm than his original. He just stood there, arms casually folded over his chest, seemingly completely at ease. As the mechanic, Fixer, listed off her terms that nagging something in the back of his head got more insistent. [i]This will end badly. Get out before it's too late![/i] For a moment, Grosser considered hammering the "up" control on the lift and running away as fast as he could. No, he had to find out what was happening. Grosser was sure someone was fucking with him and this morph was a huge part of it. He took a second to clear his mind, the closest thing to taking a deep breath that he could do as a synth, before speaking. Neither the digital face display on his faceplate nor his voice gave away his irrational panic, instead he calmly said, "Your rules are more than fair ma'am. I have less than zero interest in ego slavery, and I don't have much intention of staying in town long enough to double cross you even if I did want to, which I don't."

Grosser was taken aback by Fixer's generosity. "I'm Serg..." he began to give the standard introduction he'd given a thousand times; [i]Sergeant Reagan Grosser, Jovian Defence Force.[/i] That wasn't who he was any more though. It was funny, being shot at by his old squad mates didn't drive home how much had changed for him after that night nearly as much as a simple introduction. "You know what, just call me Reagan." Grosser looked down at the "freebies" Fixer had presented him with. He took a step forward, doing his best to appear non-threatening. Although Grosser wasn't really aware of it, he moved calmly and gracefully off the lift and toward the briefcase. As he did so, his morphs outer shell changed colours to compliment the decor of the shop. Grosser gripped the pistol, checked to be sure it was unloaded and aimed it at a wall well away from Fixer to check the sights. Satisfied, he placed it back in the case before speaking up, "Not to sound ungrateful ma'am, but I'm not used to random strangers being so," he paused for a second to consider his next word. [i]Trusting?[/i] No. [i]Convenient?[/i] No. [i]suspicious?[/i] Hell no. "...generous." "If you don't mind my asking, what do you get out of this?"

"Fair enough," Grosser said not entirely convinced, "I'm not sure how keen I am with being recruited out of the blue, but fuck it it's not like I have much choice other than to stay on this ride until the end. Let's do this thing." Grosser did his best to look relaxed and let Fixer get to work.

In the privacy of his mesh inserts, Grosser "spoke" to his muse, "Lil, can you disable the medichines and unlock all systems for examination?" Usually Lil responded instantly, but she took several seconds to respond this time. "Are you sure you want to do this?" Lil asked, "I'm not so sure we can trust this chick." "I need as much information as I can get about what happened to me, and it's not like I have a whole bunch of leads to follow. This is a risk I'm willing to take," Grosser explained. "Well, OK," Lil seemed apprehensive. An apprehensive AI, Grosser could hardly believe it. "Medichines disabled and systems unlocked," Lil reported. Grosser turned his attention to Fixer, "You should be good to go." ((OOC, I'm assuming Fixer is going to proceed with the scan, but don't want to put actions on your character. If she does scan Grosser's morph she find's that it's not actually a Galatea, but a very high quality imitation. It's scaled up from the standard model, so Grosser is about a head taller than most Galatea morphs. The only physical mods that are there that weren't mentioned in the other thread are pneumatic limbs and some extra internal armour plating. The morph's cyberbrain has been modified as well, containing a ghost rider module and a puppet sock.))

Grosser tried to absorb what Fixer was telling him. He wasn't entirely sure what it all meant, but he thought he could manage a pretty close guess. "Yeah, the muse came with the morph," he brushed it off more concerned about the rest of the news, "so this ghost rider module and puppet sock... what exactly does it mean that I have them?" Before Fixer could respond, an anonymous call came over her comm.

"Alright then," Grosser said before pausing, "let's scrub my muse. Sorry Lil, it's been fun, thanks for the help but you're too much of a risk now." Grosser sent the command to restore his mesh inserts default settings, but received no response. He tried again. Still nothing. "It doesn't..." he began to speak before abruptly stopping, his morph going momentarily limp as everything went black. Grosser's morph rebooted itself and spoke to Fixer in a wholly different voice from the one he had been using a second earlier, "We do not wish you or the Reagan Grosser ego any harm. We only wish to observe. Unfortunately despite our best efforts to subtly dissuade Grosser from allowing your examinations, you have discovered our fail safe and forced me to take direct control of this morph." Grosser's morph sat up and looked at Fixer with the best appeal for sympathy a virtual representation of a face could manage. "This whole experiment is not malicious, we want to help this ego. We can't, however have him know that we can take control of him at will, which we only ever intended to do if the experiment was in danger, like it is now. So... what is to be done?"

Grosser's morph raised it's hands in submission. "You misunderstand my intentions," the morph's voice was calm and soothing, "As I said I mean you no harm and have no interest in violence. I also strongly dislike having to freeze the good sergeant's ego longer than I have to, so let's speak frankly." The morph stood quickly looked about the room, taking note of the armed drones. "I'm working with somewhat... let's say radical group made up of very... proactive Mercurials and Argonauts that are sympathetic to the Mercurial cause. We have been working on a method of using XP to teach violent hate crime offenders empathy for the marginalized. We are effectively attempting to see if we can undo hateful, paranoid indoctrination through a series of of experiences that are expected to cause the subject to consider the individual circumstances and experiences of others before acting. We chose this ego because during his interview he stated that he wasn't entirely convinced by his bio-conservative upbringing, but he still seemed to show prejudices. He seemed like would have high chance of overcoming those prejudices with a bit of guidance. If successful, the data we collect could prove vital to developing the XP scenarios we are working on." The morph took a cautious step towards Fixer. "It is important for our research that this test be as blind as possible. I ask that you don't reveal this to the subject. Regardless of what you choose however, I won't attempt to fight you or your drones." The morph looked at Fixer waiting for a response.

"Mr. Grosser is fine. He wasn't resleeved, but forked. The ego in this morph isn't the original. The original is fine and has been returned to Jovian custody. According to Mr. Grosser himself, all that this ego is is a non-living copy. A series of data that generates responses to stimuli. No more, no less. We obviously disagree with that stance, but that is the closest thing to consent we could expect given the requirements of our experiment. As far as we're concerned, the Reagan Grosser in this morph is a wholly new being, that is being given the opportunity to develop a wholly new identity."

"I see. Unfortunately I can't make that call. Even if I could, you said yourself that morphs of this type are far from inexpensive. If the experiment was terminated, it would have to be reclaimed. This would force me to remove any agency Mr. Grosser has. I also wouldn't be able to predict what fate would befall his ego, although I am certain he wouldn't be arbitrarily deleted. I can contact those in charge of the experiment and have them terminate if you insist, or I can return to my position as a mostly silent observer, turning control over to Mr. Grosser and allowing you and him to discuss this, or not, as you see fit. If the experiment is compromised however, I will be forced to recommend termination."

The morph simply stated, "Very well." The morph's head dipped like it had fallen asleep just before the whole morph stumbled. The morph righted itself then spoke in its default voice, "Whoa, what was that?" Grosser shook his head as if to clear it. "Weird, anyhow are you going to tell me what those extra mods you found in my morph mean or just leave me here in suspense?"

Grosser sat and digested the information for a bit. "Well fuck. I'd pretty much accepted that there was no going home so that's nothing new." Grosser really wished he still had a biological body at the moment so that he could go get a nice stiff scotch. "So I either stick with this morph and risk having God only know's what happen to me, or I get sleeved into a third body, which I'm not gonna lie isn't a prospect that excites me. I'd like to keep the number of times I resleeve to a minimum, and if I did choose option B here, where is this third morph going to come from? You?" he paused as though he was taking a breath. It was partly a hold over behaviour from when he had a meat body and partly a chance for him to consider his next words. "Look, not for nothing friend, but I'm not really in love with the idea of being in your debt. Neither option seems all that appealing to be honest."

"Well, like I said, I'm really not keen on resleeving if I don't have to. I may not be a real boy any more, but old fears die hard, you know? I may be willing to accept that I'm a fully thinking, feeling person, but I'm under no illusions that I'm the human soldier that was sent on this assignment. That guy is, as far as I know, dead. Just like I would be if I took any of your options. Sure there would be something, hell someone, there that had Reagan Grosser's memories, thoughts and behaviours, but it wouldn't really be Reagan Grosser, or me, whoever I am. It's just continuing a seemingly arbitrary cycle of death and creation. And really if a life isn't worth trying to hold on to, what's the point, a million new copies aren't worth shit if one isn't. "I appreciate your help, but I need some time to make a decision. I'll see if I can't have a chat with the voice in my brain and work something out so that I stay in control. In the mean time, if you're still willing I'd appreciate getting on that freelancer list. I assume so long as I'm reachable, these guys haven't chosen to take my morph back." Grosser strode up to the "freebie" briefcase and made to reach for it while looking for confirmation from Fixer that it was still OK if he took it.

Grosser nodded at Fixer and sealed the briefcase. "It's not about accepting my personhood or not. I am a person, just not the same person that was used to make my ego. Just like if I were to resleeve the result would also be a person, but it wouldn't be me. My experience, my life, would end and the new person's would begin. Ah, nevermind. Thanks again for your help, and give me a call if you need any work done." Grosser gripped the briefcase by its handle, turned and strode back to the lift. As the lift ascended, he called up his muse, "Lil, we need to have a no-bullshit talk right now."

"What can I do for you sir?" Lil responded as Grosser was stepping off the lift and back into the Elysian streets. Grosser started making his way down an ally way, looking for some place relatively private. Chances were good that he was going to be doing some yelling and he didn't want anyone being able to ID him because of it. "Cut the shit. What's going to happen to me now that I've found out that I'm some kind of guinea pig?" Grosser started to grow angered as he turned down a darkened side street. "Well," Lil began, "I can't say for sure, but I will probably ordered to take control of your morph and return it to its owners. As for your ego, it will probably be backed up then deleted from this morph." Grosser stopped walking an leaned against the side of a nearby building. His morph's shell changed colour to blend with the building's exterior. Combined with the shadows in the narrow ally, Grosser assumed that he would go unseen, if not unheard, by any random passers by. "So you're are going to kill me then," he said. Grosser suddenly wasn't angry any more. He didn't know what he felt. It wasn't sorrow, it was more like a feeling that he simply had no say in his own existence. "We don't see it as killing you. Your consciousness, memories and personality will all be left intact. You'll probably even get a free morph out of the deal before being sent on your way." "It doesn't matter how you people see it. My existence is going to end once that delete command is sent. Making a perfect replacement copy doesn't change that." Grosser slid down into a sitting position, his back scraping against the rough building exterior. He heard the scraping, knew that there was probably an ugly scuff on his back now, but didn't really care. The medichines would fix it soon enough, and even if they wouldn't it wasn't like he was going to be around long enough to care. "I... I'm sorry you feel that way," Lil said trying, to little success, to maintain a tone of professional disinterest. "Your initial interview results indicated that you would have little objection with resleeving so long as your original ego was left intact and you were not placed in a biomorph. You told me that any such creation would just be a thing who's existence was irrelevant. I obviously misjudged you." Grosser didn't have any well thought out retort, no ideology or philosophy that could make him OK with his fate. "I'm sure Grosser 1.0 or whatever the fuck you want to call him would agree with you. It's different when you're living it," if he were physically capable of doing so, Grosser was sure he would be sobbing, "I don't want to die." Grosser sat in silence for what seemed like forever until Lil finally spoke up, "I'll see what I can do."

((Maybe down the road, but right now he's neither educated nor open minded enough to see a difference. He's still very tied to the idea that ending an ego's process on a morph is no different than death, regardless of how it is moved to another. Pretty much the only way he'd accept a new morph is if his whole cyberbrain was physically transferred into another morph, and even that would take a lot of convincing))