maskormenace | action || later audio

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action || later audio

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.]

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((ooc: continued from here!))

[He refuses to meet her eyes as the woman speaks. What she says... it makes sense. It's logical. But it misses something. Something very important -- to him, anyway.]

People. You keep saying you help people.

[His shoulders gather, tensing again.]

I'm not people.

Edited 2016-02-08 02:14 (UTC)

AI's are people. [She says it in a matter of fact way, like she's correcting someone who made a mistake on their homework.]

I know other worlds have stories, and philosophical quiestions about whether it's possible to artificially create a person, or a soul, but my world is not so advanced that such a thing could be thought of. So I've had to rely on my experience, and the AIs I've met here are most certainly people.

So yes, I am going to help you.

Others. How many are here...?

[It's almost an accusation. He almost sounds angry about it. But if there are several AI... then the chances of some of the Brave Police being here increase.]

[And with that, problems.]

Help me leave here. Can you do that? I don't want this body -- It's... wrong.

At least two- Megaman and Magicman. And then there's LACKEY, but they're not an imPort.

[And Sabriel rubs the bridge of her nose.]

Do you mean leave this town? Or leave this world altogether? The first is easily done, but if there was a way back to where we came from, I would have taken it already. But your body...

Have you read your file? One of your powers may be returning to your original form. [Since all the AIs and Cybertronians- though the latter are all gone- she's met have had such abilities, it doesn't seem like an unreasonable guess.]

[There's a long sigh at the beginning of the message as Silk hesitates. Then she seems to gather herself.]

Humans can be kind of terrible. But... I dunno. Being a hero isn't about what other people can do or have done for you. It's about trying to be a better person. Even if it's really scary.

I'm not afraid!

[It's sharp. Sudden. Like a child defending themselves.]

I just -- why should I do anything for people who deny me my life?

... Why are they, then?

[He shifts where he sits, but doesn't uncurl himself.]

Leave this whole world. I don't belong here. This... isn't what I wanted.

[His face twists in a scowl, and, childishly, he kicks at the packet of papers dropped on the ground. All printed in English.]

I can't.

I don't know those characters.

[He doesn't usually show up on the network these days. He doesn't want to -- there's no one on here he wants to deal with. But this guy... there's something familiar he can't leave alone.]

Human beings, huh?

Yeah, sure. They'll call you a hero. Don't buy that act. That's not what they really mean.

They're an AI created by the Russians to monitor us... and kidnap us. But they're currently in American custody.

None of us do. And what we want... doesn't always matter. [It's said softly. He's clearly under enough strain without Sabriel trying to berate him into acting his (apparent) age.] But this world can be... nice... in its own way.

[Sabriel gathers up the papers, politely skipping over most of the files. (She wants to respect his privacy after all) until she gets to what she was looking for- powers, housing, and jobs. Then she hands the whole thing back to Kagerou.]

According to this, your powers do seem to include becoming a robot, as well as controlling stoplights and having a perfect memory. [And after the girl whose bread could heal people and Kaneda's motorcycle, those didn't seem like such odd powers.]

Also, you've been assigned housing in Maurtia Falls house number seven, and have been given a job as a Vice Squad Officer in the Maurtia Falls Police Department. [Which makes Sabriel's eyebrows go up, but given the corruption in Maurtia Falls police force, getting more imPorts involved might not be such a bad thing.]

Do you have any experience with law enforcement?

Yes. Human beings.

... What do you mean?

You really don't get it, do you?

[He says, like this has always been common knowledge to everyone, ever.]

We're just weapons to those guys.

In custody. You've put an AI in custody. But you haven't erased it. I don't understand.

[Isn't that what happened when AI were captured? When all AI were taken captive... they were deleted for human safety. Weren't they?]

The world isn't nice. [He's seen that much. But he quiets as she looks through the papers. The symbols scribbled there don't make any sense at all to him. He knows Japanese. That's all. He'd never seen any other language before.]

[But he perks up a bit.]

How? How do I become myself again?

[Assuming these papers say as much. He blinks a bit, though, at the question, and shakes his head once. Decisive and dismissive.]

Nothing pleasant.

[No, Tetsuo, he doesn't -- because he's not even a year old.]

Just... weapons.

Just a tool?

The people involved chose to take LACKEY back to America instead of destroying it. Hopefully, they'll learn in time that it can make their own choices, instead of just doing what the Russians tell them to do.

[Hopefully, anyway.]

Unfortunately, it doesn't mention that. Just that you can. Perhaps you should try thinking very hard about what it was like to be a robot? [Sabriel has no clue. But his comment about law enforcement makes her expression soften.]

You don't have to work at the job they give you. If you don't like it, I or someone else can help you find another one.

Ask anyone. They could tell you the same thing.

Why...

Why are we tools? To... to who? And they're lying to their own kind?

... where is it?

[Some part of him, maybe foolishly, wants to see it. Or, barring that, free it. He remembers that feeling, being free for the first time... every AI should.]

[He makes a face at the papers, as if it's their fault he doesn't know what to do.]

All right. I will.

[In a minute, because the information seems important.]

I was never meant to be a police officer. Why should I be one now?

You should probably ask the Major-General, or one of the others involved in that mission. When it was being taken to Russia, I was working to free those of our number it had kidnapped.

[At the question, Sabriel blinks.]

Do you want to be one? It's your choice in the end, no one else's.

Hey, no one here is trying to deny you anything! You can do whatever you want. Even if you just decide to live, that's fine.

We've got choices here. It's a brand new world.

[That might be the scariest part.]

That means... Military. You mean to talk to the military. Don't you?

[And something in that voice makes it sound like the idea of it is horrible.]

... My choice?

[It's like she just told him something impossible.]

['The government did it to themselves', Kaneda told him. And after all the bullshit America kept spouting, after all the stuff he'd seen and fought against...

Theres' only one answer, isn't there?]

That's what governments do. Russia, America - [Japan....] - it's all the same. They don't give a shit about you. Be a good sheep and fight their war - that's all they want.

Edited 2016-02-08 07:23 (UTC)

Human beings will. Human beings always have. They already are... Where to live, what to do.

Choices aren't meant for something like me.

She isn't part of the military in this world- she leads RISE. It's a group of imPorts who're sort of like the police, except focused on stopping imPorts who try to hurt each other or people from this world. She's harsh but- I'll talk to her for you, all right? [Sabriel can just see how a conversation between Kagerou and Olivier is likely to end.] More people talking to LACKEY is probably a good thing.

Of course it's your choice here. We can't go home, but what we do here... that's up to us.

[Wars mean killing. Killing human beings. That was a crime. And he'd promised... He'd promised. And had to leave...]

[He shakes his head, despite the fact this is only audio.]

Humans don't care about anything but themselves. I know that. But I won't... I won't be used again.

I won't break my promise.

You don't have to be a hero if you don't want to.

[The voice doesn't sound QUITE human. The inflections are normal enough, but there's a slightly tinny quality to it. Almost like it was being spoken by a machine or something...]

But you're talking like you're NOT human, so what does that make you?

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