[Desperately Seeking Roidmudes]

[warintheextreme]

I have always and will always be a scientist. While my expertise has mostly been in the area of biology, when one accidentally discovers an entire human digitized, and then reviving them and discovering that they are fully conscious, and have been the entire three years they were essentially trapped in a data subdimension...

One starts to pay closer attention to what happens in the realms of the internet and data transmission.

And then, of course, there was the Global Freeze event- not that anyone could miss it.

Still, if nothing else, it resulted in a massive dump of new accessible data, and there are certain lines of code that are... Unsettlingly familiar.

I considered contacting Jin Masato to ask his opinion, but he has recently reunited with his partner, and I don't want to be a bother or annoyance. Besides, I can tell with a little extra digging that this data is artificial on a deeper level than Jin Masato's data was.

Still, it is humanoid. And, from what I can tell, it's conscious.

Perhaps I should be more cautious- I have seen terrible things in my life, things that can go horribly wrong when mistakes are made, actions taken without considering all potential consequences.

But whatever this conscious data in the dump from the Global Freeze event is, who it is, they aren't responding to my usual avenues of communication with digital entities, and if nothing else, my recent life has left me a lot more sympathetic to those trapped by circumstance.

I sift through, collate the data with this specific electronic signature, and feed it into the second prototype of the portable hard-light holographic emitter, then activate it.

It, or rather, they should load automatically.

Comments

[warintheextreme]

"Yes." I answer his question with as reasonable a tone as I can manage- or at least, reasonable for me, which may actually mean without any particular tone at all. But at least it's not, as far as I can tell, particularly mocking.

Well, it shouldn't be. I'm not mocking him at all.

"Yes, like I would load a program. Which is what you seem to be, at this point. I am sorry if that is a shock to you."

He moves closer, and his eyes glint warningly. I remain still, hands raised, but I twist them at the wrist so I am instead visibly shrugging without the actual motion. "I have a bad habit of dabbling in things that are maybe outside of my responsibility. But you were conscious within the data dump made public after the Global Freeze event. I was concerned you were..." I pause, trying to think of the right word, or words.

"In pain. Or discomfort. In that form."

I don't know what he means by Core, but I'm thinking maybe I should, perhaps I should have researched the events in Kuruma more completely before fiddling around in this data. But I recognize the name, and while I am trying not to be offensive or affronting, I can't help the sharp laugh that barks out of me.

"Banno? Banno Tenjuurou? That hack?" I scoff, rolling my eyes a little.

Banno was a terrible scientist who relied too much on the intelligence of greater people, and with a bad track record, a lack of principles, and hardly any worthwhile method to his madness, even before he tried to take over the world through the most absurdly contrived methods ever heard of- and that's coming from me, who believed in magic evolution fruit that granted godhood.

"Hardly."

[atelltaleheart]

I have many thoughts on what the scientist is telling me. Suspicion against the purity of his intentions, curiosity at the genuine-sounding apology he offers me in sympathy. But thoughts further than that point are brought to a screeching, gobsmacked halt when he laughs.

...Oh. OH. I have witnessed derision, and I have witnessed deception. This is derision, yes, but not deception. And not directed at me.

Generally, I have observed that humans are skilled at creating artificial reactions. Those with exceptional skill in this area are the ones who work as diplomats - or thieves. Not the scientists, who eschew companionship of their own race and pursue passion in a way that seems to make sense only to themselves.

This one does not have the skill to conceal the subtle, telling movements of facial muscle that reacted instantaneously when I said Banno's name. (Nor, I think, has he ever spent much time attempting to develop said skill. He is an "open book.")

He laughs, calls Banno what I imagine is one of the strongest insults he knows, and something in my heart - in what would have been my heart, if I still had a body - untwists. Something about his reaction strikes me in the right way, reassuring me not only that I am safe - for the moment - but also that I am in friendly company.

Quite a conclusion to draw, from a simple short laugh. But, as the story goes, there are some things that only the heart knows. I don't mind that I cannot quantify why the scientist's laugh has so easily convinced me of something that his words had not. I simply can. Of course, Brain would fret, certain I'm jumping to unfounded conclusions.

...Brain.

"The others." Wide-eyed, fists opening to supplicate, anger forgotten, everything else forgotten, I advance until I am within the scientist's personal space, pinning him to his chair with my desperate gaze.

"The others. Where are the others?"

[warintheextreme]

This time he actually lunges, and I'm pretty cavalier but there are certain potential threats that even I react to reflexively. He stands over me and while his expression is no longer fierce with potential violence, he's still much closer than I generally allow any person, artificial or otherwise. I stand up, my chair rolling out from under me and away.

He's still quite taller than me, but that's not the problem.

I wet my lips thoughtfully, glance towards my computer where the data that I culled him from is still scrolling resolutely, and then look back up at him, meeting his eyes.

"I did not know there were others. But I can look."