etcelsior | sure, jan

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sure, jan

TEST DRIVE MEME

Considering apping into MASK OR MENACE? Want to dip your toes into the setting and get a feel of whether your character will fit into it? Or maybe you're just cruising and want to play around? Then you've come to the right place!

Pick any of the following scenarios below or feel free to make up your own, but don't be afraid to throw yourself at anyone's thread, either!

And remember to have fun!

01. Your memory is hazy and you might feel increasingly frustrated or anxious, or maybe you're excited as soldiers march past, barely glimpsing you. One second you're somewhere underground, the next you're enveloped in blue light, and suddenly you find yourself directly under Flordia sun's bright and burning glare. A female soldier steps toward you with a wide smile on her face and directs you to a car, ready to debrief you. You realize you are not the only one, surrounded by equally confused or eager faces... and you're all sporting a digital tattoo on your wrist.

02. Welcome to Cape Canaveral, where the smell of the ocean is in the air and locals are more than pleased to see new imPorts roaming their streets. They wave, they cheer, they ask for pictures as politely as they can. The more inhuman you look, or if you're wearing a costume, the more likely locals are to approach. Hey, enjoy the moment! The popular malt shop is offering you a free drink if you need it.

03. The technology in this world is certainly something. The cars are clearly modeled after popular 50s cars, but they hover several feet above the ground as they drive down the street. There are digital jukeboxes in restaurants, motorcycles also hover through traffic, advertisements can be seen on a digital projector on the taller buildings. Even kids on skateboards appear to drift a safe ten feet off the ground while playing!

04. Wherever you are, you can hear the loud revving of an engine, distance at first before you finally see it: a hovercar bursting around the corner, going beyond the maximum speed limit and just barely making its sharp turn. It doesn't appear to be slowing down any time soon, not with two police cars trailing it... and uh oh. Those skateboarding kids don't have much time to get out of the way as the car comes speeding down the road. You've been brought here for a reason Hero — so you better act fast.

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[ He laughs. It's more like a huff, a quick exhale of breath. ] I am stable. It could be worse.

Things are...too loud. There's a lot to take in. I am not used to this yet. All of this. [ Waves a hand. ]

You can scan. If you like. [ A scan will show he's 100% human. ]

[Huh, no injuries, no apparent illnesses. He seems like he's in good health.] You check out. I guess it's just disorientation. [X leans against the dock railing.] If it makes you feel better, I'm not used to being around this many people either. At least, not for a while. But it's nice to be able to have someone to talk it out with, so thanks for helping me.

[ He's in good health except for the part where he's an AI stuck in a human body, but nobody would be able to discern that with a scan. Except someone who could read minds, maybe. ]

Something like that. [ He doesn't lean, as such, though he braces himself with a hand against the railing. His pose is stiff, as if he's used to less casual positions than this one. ] People are noisy. Loud. It's crowded here.

Too many sounds. [ Too much of everything, really. He keeps his phrases clipped and short because he makes sound, too, and he can hear it in a way that's strange to him, through the bones he now has. He resorts to treating speech as a command line. ] Children are...fine. But louder than adults. More active. It can be overwhelming.

[ A little nod. ] You're welcome.

[ A pause, then another curious look. ] Are you a robot? Or is that a shell. [ It seems like a silly question to ask, but there's a bit of a distinction between an AI piloting a robot and a 'true' robot, at least to him. ]

[It must be terrible for him to be in crowds these huge, if a lot of noise bothers him. X feels a pang of sympathy; maybe he should stick around, make sure this guy gets to his housing unit okay. It'd only be fair to repay the kindness he showed him earlier, after all.]

I'm a- well, I'm artificial. [He's technically not a reploid, but he's taken to calling himself that for the sake of brevity but if he's really in another world then that term probably doesn't mean much to anybody else.] I guess you could call me a robot, though my programming's a lot different.

Do you have robots where you're from?

[ Everything bothers him, really. He's going to need to lie down with a cold towel on his forehead in a dark room or something. Though the relative silence of the pier helps; nature's sounds are less grating on his ears than the sounds of people, though not by much. ]

I see. [ It reminds him of Wily's robotics research - what little of it there still was to actually look at. Most of it is stored away somewhere. ]

...Not exactly. We could have had it. Maybe. But things worked out differently.

We have net navigators. AIs. Programmed to learn and evolve mentally alongside human beings. Working as their partners.

[ A pause. ] I was one. Where I was from. Now it's...more difficult. Being like this.

You-

[X might be artificial, but he definitely reacts human enough. He reels back, eyes wide with shock; he's even got a hand pressed to his chest.] An AI? But my scans showed you were human! What- what happened to you, are you all right?

[ He doesn't blink at X reacting like that. He's an artificial being himself, he hardly cares. Equal to humans, and all that. ]

The machine that brought me here placed me into a human body. It's...hard. Getting used to it. [ A computer consciousness trying to make sense of a human body, more or less. ] Sound, light. More senses.

Everything is more vivid here. More overwhelming. I have to breathe. I can hear my own heartbeat.

[ He sounds rueful. ] Even my own voice. That sounds strange to me, too.

I can access some of the abilities I had. Even like this. So I'm not completely...stranded. But the physical world is...there is a lot.

[Sorry dude this kid is sooooo not used to robots/programs becoming actual live squishy people. This is sort of a shock.] But how? [give him a minute he'll catch up] And why? And- I mean, no wonder you're having a hard time adjusting! [uh oh he's going into justice mode] They just threw you into this! Look- I can see if I can find someone to talk to, this really shouldn't be allowed. Without even consulting you first! That's just- that's outrageous. It's really over the line. They could've seriously hurt you!

[ He's not used to it either, but out of the two of them he's ~~hiding his mild breakdowns over everything ever being different a lot better~~ managing okay. ] I don't know. The machine wanted it. Presumably easier to manage.

[ He has no idea-- X, what are you doing.... ] It...it's fine. I'm already getting used to it.

It could be better. But I have to make do with what I have.

[ They've already cut him off from someone very, very important. Compared to that, this is just kind of kicking him while he's down.

It's not that he doesn't care. It's just...too much, all at once, and he doesn't want to think about it too hard because everything might just collapse. Emotional vulnerability is embarrassing. ]

[he's building up steam that's what he's doing]

It's definitely not all right! Are you sure? There's got to be some kind of accommodations they can make, at least to make the transition easier. You said you have light and audio sensitivity issues? Maybe- [CALIBRATIONS????] -oh! I could get you some sunglasses! Some earphones also, that might help block out some of the noise.

Wait right here, I'll be right back. Don't move!

[ oh god what has he done. ]

I have a headache, but it's fine, I--

[ --and there he goes. ]

Ah...

[ He just kind of bemusedly shakes his head. Well, he can't exactly say anything, can he. ]

[X has become your friend. God save you, Magicman.

It takes him a little while to get back (he got stopped for pictures and he couldn't say no, but someone pushed a ten dollar bill into his hand for it which he would've refused except he realized he had no money to get sunglasses and earphones and whatever with) but when X returns, it's with a smile and a shopping bag. And he produces a pair of truly hideous novelty sunglasses, perhaps not realizing what a horrible thing he's just bought.

(He liked them. They're colorful. There's a bird on it!)]

I'm sorry, I couldn't find any earphones I could afford, but I did get some earplugs, so those might help.

Oh! And I think I heard you mention a headache as I was leaving, so I got... [He fishes out the bottle.] "Tylenol." You should only take two. Oh wow, that's a lot of complications if you take more than two...

[ He didn't mean for this to happen, oh god.

He just kind of stares at the sunglasses, gingerly taking them. Even for someone so expressionless the general feeling is that he really doesn't want to put these on.

Maybe he can pawn them off on Colorman later.

Magicman is, however, cursed with politeness, so he puts them on. Everything is a little more manageable in his field of vision - much less bright - but...but they're such terrible sunglasses.

He wears them anyway. ]

Ah...thank you.

I don't think the Tylenol will help all that much. But the effort is appreciated.

Human bodies are complicated. The way they interact with medicine, even beneficial ones, is....even more complicated.

If you're all this helpful..back in your own world. I wonder why people would be scared of you.

[X was going to explain that no no, it's okay, it's just acetaminophen and that stuff is generally harmless so long as you don't overdose, and he can download a medical database as soon as he finds an access port so seriously it's okay, but then Magicman says...that.

And it makes him look up from the bottle before looking away.] It's not- me. In particular. It's reploids in general. There have been some problems, some unrest...some viruses. A lot of reploids have done a lot of terrible things, and...humans are rightly afraid of all of us for it. [He used to think they were ridiculous, full of hot air. Those cults who hated on reploids for no reason.

That was before Mavericks, however. Now, he wonders if he'd even be able to face the same accusations.

Deflated, X drops the bottle into the shopping bag and offers it to Magicman anyway.] Here. Just in case.

[ Oh, oops. Faux pas. ]

Humans have done terrible things. [ Human history is basically one long game of 'who can fuck each other up better', as far as he knows. That, too, is simple fact. ] Like anything. Systems can be exploited. [ Doesn't he know it. ] Netnavis can affect the real world in many ways. Sometimes bad. But people don't hate netnavis.

Humans, and reploids.

You're not partners. Not equal? [ He sounds curious, again. It sounds like fiction; a world where humans fear the technology they live alongside. Of course, even in his own world, it happens...but it's a vocal minority, more than anything. Netnavis and humans need each other. At its core, that's what Net Society is built on. ]

Socially, we are. But reploids- they're built to be faster, stronger, more capable. Many have weapons systems installed upon construction. We need to hold ourselves to a higher standard. [X knows all about history; he knows about human wars, about how people will murder one another. It's not uncommon. And maybe if the violence was just reploid-on-reploid, it wouldn't be like that.

But it's not. And a lot of Mavericks- they're insane. Some of them want to destroy everything, and then some of them just want to kill all humans, and any reploid that defies them.

He'd worried about this, in the beginning. He'd worried if technology was progressing too quickly. Dr. Cain had wanted to build his own reploid right away and X had been nervous, but he'd assisted him because he'd wanted to make his friend happy.

Now, he wonders if he should've refused.]

But humans created reploids. Didn't they? [ Why would you create sentient beings if you were only going to fear the added power they used to assist? That doesn't really make any sense to him. ] Why add weapons systems so soon? If they were so afraid.

If you want to make sentient beings. You should be aware of the responsibility you have for their lives. You can't shut them down once you think it's gone far enough. [ During the early days of netnavis, there had been a lot of experimentation.

It stopped, eventually. There had been reminders. Netnavis aren't toys to be played with; they are people. Partners. They can do things that humans can't; humans can do things that they can't. It works out. ]

Maybe I'm missing something. Why did people create reploids? To help alongside them?

It's- honestly, I think it was excitement. Reploids were a huge jump in technology and...and I think the world was so comfortable with robots that they thought we would work out.

They would have. It's just that this terrible virus happened, and... [and it supposedly started with Zero which X will never believe, not completely] It would've been fine. Reploids understood their responsibilities to humans. [Even if Lumine claimed that they weren't infected, that they'd just decided to go Maverick, to turn against humans. It just doesn't make any sense, but he couldn't stop thinking about it.]

It's really complicated. I don't think humans -not all of them- would want to destroy all reploids, but at this point it's not even an option. With all the wars, we outnumber human beings, and even though there are many of us still trying to protect humans and civilian reploids, it's...gotten bad.

-I'm sorry. This isn't really a good conversation for a first meeting. Maybe we could talk about something else?

Edited 2015-02-01 08:37 (UTC)

Reploid responsibilities to humans...Not allowed to harm human beings or go against them? Yes? Or no.

[ They sound similar to the three laws he's somewhat familiar with, if only because they appear in robot fiction. ]

...

Difficult topic. I understand. [ Simple facts, stated in blocks. ]

Would you like to ask anything? About the place I come from.

[RELIEVED. Yeah he would like to do that, thanks.] Yes, I'm- well, I'm very interested in what you said, about Netnavis? You work alongside humans as partners?

[ No problems here. Explaining things is one of his many functions. ]

Yes. Netnavis and human beings grow and learn from each other. Netnavis help humans perform tasks that require use of programmable devices. Humans help netnavis in other ways. Help them to grow mentally.

Humans have a responsibility to treat us as equal beings. Netnavis have free will. They can leave or rebel if they feel their treatment is unjust.

We are friends to humans. And partners. Each half is capable of doing specific things.

That...that sounds so wonderful. And really intelligent! Steady, positive human interaction is definitely a great way for an infant AI to learn and come into its own. And it's wonderful that Netnavis can choose for themselves what they'd like to do.

So it works out pretty well, usually? I suppose there's some abuse of the system, that can't really be avoided.

Of course. Some people will see navis only as tools. Or disposable in other ways. Not real. [ A hint of disdain creeps into his tone. ] That attitude is not received well by anyone.

[ Even criminals treat their navis well. At least, the ones he knows - and the one he's operated by. ]

But it works. There were...ethical issues. Before. But that was a few generations ago.

I'm glad to hear it was cleared up, for the most part.

It sounds like a very beneficial partnership, at any rate! How did the concept of Netnavis start, anyway?

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sure, jan

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OH MY GOD THANK YOU YOU HAVE JUST MADE MY NIGHT SLKJADF

THE SHITTY SUNGLASSES COMPELLED ME, I HAD TO

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