action || later audio

[fuckinstoplights]

ACTION: Maurtia Falls
[Bad enough he wake up surrounded by soldiers again. Bad enough he wake up in a body that isn't his own, missing memories. No one shot at him this time, but it's a small comfort. Very small. As the soldiers are quick to deposit him in a big city.]

[And... surround him with people. Too many people. Way, way too many people.]

[He's not completely comfortable with this strange body yet, so when the young man with mismatched eyes -- one red, one green -- goes sprinting away from the porter, he ends up stumbling a few times. Once he even falls flat on his face.]

[If anyone's around to offer assistance, he just stares wildly at them, startled, awkward.]

[If they don't persist, he takes off running again, somewhere, anywhere away from all these people. Maybe if he runs far enough, Shadowmaru will return and make this nightmare end. He'd been trying to do the right thing -- he'd made a promise, he intended to keep it. Why is he being punished like this?]

[He'll eventually, if un-accosted, seek shelter in a park. Probably under a tree.]



AUDIO;
[Later on, after settling somewhat into realizing this won't change any time soon -- that he really is stuck here, Kagerou sets about poking at his comm device. He doesn't activate the video feed -- no, he's not comfortable with that yet. He just wants to figure out what's happening here.]

[He's almost talking to himself as he speaks.]

I don't understand this...

[That's all there is for a few moments. As if he's trying to determine the right thing to say.]

Why me? I'm nothing like a... like a "Hero". I've never helped a human being. And why should I? None of you have ever done anything for me.

Why should I be a "hero"?

Why should I do anything for human beings?

Whoever decided this -- whoever brought me to this place. You shouldn't have.

[He ends the call abruptly, right there.]

Comments

video;

[fuckinstoplights]

Those with Super AI are said to have personalities. Feelings.

Memories.

video;

[iamtetsuo]

'Are said to'? You're a Super AI, you gonna tell me you don't have that stuff?

video;

[fuckinstoplights]

I'm a prototype.

Those who are perfected models have perfected chips. Doesn't that make more sense?

[mammal_robot]

That is the point I have been trying to make, yes. Even if you're not technically alive, life is still big.

[fuckinstoplights]

I...

I still want to go back. I'm not ready for all this.

[mammal_robot]

Ah, well? That's kind of the downside: Life happens whether you're ready for it or not.

[fuckinstoplights]

[He wants to snap at that. Yell. This wasn't what he wanted when he'd run. None of it was. He'd wanted to leave, of course, he'd had to, if he wanted to live...]

[This just isn't how he ever pictured it being. And it's hard and unreal and he almost wants to run back to everything he'd left behind, just for one last chance of normalcy.]

...

So I see.

[But that's all that comes out.]

[mammal_robot]

[Robo was getting a new appreciation for the first few days of his own life, and why Tesla had taken pains to carefully control his first interactions with other humans. He wasn't sure WHAT he would have done without his brilliant, but borderline OCD father figure.]

You'll get the hang of it.

[After a moment's thought, he forwarded Kagerou a phone number]

Here, look. I've been around this rodeo a time or two. If you've got questions about why humans are acting the way they are, go ahead and call me whenever. I don't sleep.

video;

[iamtetsuo]

Yeah. Sure it does. [But as someone messed with himself.... he can't let this go] So what?

video;

[fuckinstoplights]

And the perfected models are the ones worth preserving.

If... everyone's Super AI was as they said it was, was as valuable as they claimed, they wouldn't want to erase it.

Would they?

video;

[iamtetsuo]

...

What the...

[He's hearing a few other conversations alongside. Questions asked late at night - a clone talking about human nature. Kaneda..on the government's role in his life. It's not that he cares about people, but that this is just a little too easy to project into.

It's been a long time since he's been angry on someone else's behalf.]

Some bastard try to erase you!?

video;

[fuckinstoplights]

[The expression on his face doesn't change. It stays flat and focused. A mask. His tone changes though, as if he's reciting something he's had to say a hundred times before.]

I'm nothing more than a prototype. When I completed my function, they intended to wipe my memories, erase me.

To kill me.

And when I objected, they called me a criminal, and sent the authorities to capture me.

video;

[iamtetsuo]

That's a load of shit! They don't get to tell you when you shouldn't be around anymore!!

video;

[fuckinstoplights]

They made me. I'm nothing more than a prototype -- just a shadow.

They decided they had that right.

video;

[iamtetsuo]

They can eat shit.

video;

[fuckinstoplights]

... I don't know what that means.

video;

[iamtetsuo]

It means - forget it. It means they can go to hell!

[Tetsuo he probably doesn't know that one either]

[lunaraneae]

Kind of a downer, got it. I think your choices are important, at least. And you can choose things here. I get it if you don't believe me, though.

[ video ]

[enucleation]

They never forced anyone to fight even after all this time.

And if they try to force us, they won't get very far. We are the ones with superpowers, after all.

[flowerette]

So you say. But if you're here a month from now, I'm going to ask you that same question again. I believe you might change your mind.

[fuckinstoplights]

"Downer"?

What does that mean?

video;

[fuckinstoplights]

I don't know what that means either.

[fuckinstoplights]

... You really mean that. Don't you?

[About the calling him up part, not the sleeping part.]

[ video ]

[fuckinstoplights]

Super powers.

All I have is this.

[fuckinstoplights]

Unless he's here by then, no. I won't.