maskormenace | 002 ♫ VIDEO

Entry tags:

002 ♫ VIDEO

[ From the perspective, someone's got his communicator propped up on a shelf or a windowsill.

The view encompasses Aoba, his desk, and the remains of four computers, four tablets, three smart phones, three remotes of nebulous origin, and a...toaster oven? From the organized chaos of metal, plastic, casing, wires, tools, and junk food, someone's been working at this a while. ]

Okay, I just have a quick request. If you have any computers or electronic devices that you don't want or that you're going to throw away, can I have them?

I need them for something.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He's a nerd, he has no right to call other people nerds.

Pitying them for having to help people figure out their computer problems, though...]

You really know how to eviscerate down to the smallest pieces. For an "All Mate"?

[Because he. Y'know. Listened in on all your other conversations...]

[ It's good money, and anyone over fifty is always impressed, okay. ]

You'd be surprised how much stuff you can use that just gets thrown away.

[ He smiles, just a little. ] For Ren. All Mates don't exist here, so all his parts and material components aren't around.

[If that's what makes you feel better about it...]

I see. All Mates are a kind of robot where you're from, and yours is a dog named Ren.

Can I see him?

[Assuming it's... not an A.I.

How little he knows.]

[ It's a legitimate career path. ]

Er, only if he agrees.

[ Now that he thinks about it, Ren might not like the attention at all. ] He's kind of a private person. He might not.

You mean a private dog.

Is he an A.I., then?

[ More insistently. ] A person.

He's a real person, that's sometimes a robot dog.

[Wow, someone got grumpy real quick.]

Forgive me. You made it sound only as if he's a dog, and not at all a person. I would still like to meet him, regardless of person or dog form.

I'm used to him being a dog a lot of the time, but that's changed recently. It's alright.

[ He takes a breath; there's no reason to be rude. ] I'll ask him for you.

When you say recently, do you mean since arriving here?

A little before. Things started to change for him back home. [ In a manner of speaking. ] He was a person inside, but the body is new. He got that when he arrived.

... So he isn't an A.I. at all. He's a person, in the body of a robotic dog, who now has a human body.

[AOBA, DO YOU KNOW HOW STUPID THIS SOUNDS.]

[ NOOOOOOOOO--maybe. ] Y...yeah. We're still getting used to it.

Where did you say you were from, again?

Midorijima. It's an island in the Okinawa prefecture in Japan.

[Note to self: avoid Midorijima. Shit's fucked up over there.]

Strange. I've never heard of it. It must be unique to your world.

[ ...it's true, tbh. ]

If you've never heard of Platinum Jail or a man named Toue, then yeah. It probably means it doesn't exist where you're from.

Platinum Jail is definitely a name I'd recall. It also isn't a place that exists here. Does that mean it's more likely that it's simply coincidence that where I'm from and this iteration of Earth both don't have Midorijima, or is it more likely that it's simply exclusive to your Earth?

Uh...I don't know?

I'd have to ask everybody who's from Earth if it exists there, I guess? But I don't think it's likely...or I hope it's not.

I don't want more versions of me running around.