etcelsior | 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ 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?

sure, jan

THE SHITTY SUNGLASSES COMPELLED ME, I HAD TO

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