And We Danced (Masquerade Overflow!)

[thespaceopera]

The Captcha is upon us, but the party isn't over! Feel free to continue your threads here, start new ones, and continue the dance party!

- Original Mingle
- OOC Post

[[OOC: Wait for Sections! Sections are up! Feel free to use the section prompts or make your own! We'd also advise against just linking back to your original mingle post for the sake of players with slower computers.]]

Comments

Daneel

[passingthrough]

(OOC: From here.)

Oh, no, don't worry about that. Takes more than that for distress. [She smiles as if to prove it.] Probably not the best masquerade chit chat. I've never been very good with the small talk. [She likes talking to people and she tends to like those talks substantial or frivolous in a really amusing way at least.]

[thezerothlaw]

I confess that small talk often eludes me as well. I realise that it is an important part of social interactions for many, and I often find myself participating in it for others' comfort, but it is an affectation on my part.

[passingthrough]

Well, feel free to jump right in with something deep and substantial and we'll see how that goes. [She smiles wondering if he will.]

[thezerothlaw]

[He gives her a quizzical look.]

I was under the impression that weighty topics are not appropriate for social gatherings such as these. Is it different in your culture?

[passingthrough]

Eh, civilization collapsed back home. There aren't a lot of social gatherings anymore. [Even Angel's club got taken down recently. At least, recent to her.] What do I know of appropriate?

[thezerothlaw]

Civilisation collapsed?

[He is genuinely, honestly upset about that. That is precisely the sort of thing he was working to prevent back home.]

How did this happen?

[passingthrough]

[Well, upsetting him isn't ideal! Maybe this is why people use small talk. Who knew?] Apocalypse rose to power. Governments tried to fight back and ended up irradiating huge chunks of the world and in the end Apocalypse only thrived on the destruction while governments and militaries didn't do so well.

[thezerothlaw]

[He listens, soberly.]

You refer to the Apocalypse as though it were someone's name. Is space travel possible in your world? Perhaps the colonization of another world, or many worlds, would be an improvement.

[passingthrough]

His real name is En Sabah Nur. He goes by Apocalypse. But if it helps his affect on the world is apocalyptic. [She looks thoughtful.] It's possible, but resources are scarce and I imagine he'd send his forces to stop any kind of exodus. [Or would have. Kurt has already filled her in on how things get better and then much much worse again.]

[thezerothlaw]

There was a man in my own time, from my own world, who wished to destroy Earth. The ensuing war would have eliminated all strains of humanity in the galaxy. It was unthinkable.

[Almost literally unthinkable, for him.]

What was this Apocalypse's goal?

[passingthrough]

Survival of the fittest. [How many times had she heard that? It slips right off her tongue.]

He didn't see humans as measuring up. Not all mutants either.

[thezerothlaw]

[Daneel gives this some thought.]

It is true that Amadiro believed the humans of Earth to be genetically inferior to the humans of the Spacer worlds, though that was not the sum of his motivations. It is regrettable that such similar ideas should arise in such different settings. I doubt very much that any particular healthy genotype is superior over any other. Survival of fittest, too, is not something that is to be decided by one individual, but by forces acting upon many generations.

[passingthrough]

He was trying to pit people against each other, but I doubt he would have been satisfied with it taking entire generations.

How was your man stopped?

[thezerothlaw]

[Ah. Now, there he hesitates a little, because that's not an easy thing to admit to being part of.]

Some force was necessary. Friend Giskard had some mental ability, and removed that urge from his mind. It was deeply-rooted, and such a change could not be done without seriously harming him, which of course friend Giskard was reluctant to do. It was done, however. Amadiro is no longer a threat. He no longer remembers his plot, and he will not live long enough to set another plot into action.

[passingthrough]

[Stopping him without death was impressive enough to her. Though she knows alternatives don't come easily either. In the prison she'd ordered and participated in resouling a vampire to protect people from him, but it meant the man was tortured by his demon. She'd protected others and saved his life, but he told her over and over he wished she'd killed him honorably instead.]

He saved lives. It was the right thing to do even if it doesn't feel like it. Even if it never will.

[thezerothlaw]

The First Law of Robotics states that a robot must not harm a human being, nor through inaction allow a human being to come to harm. Friend Giskard did not survive. He could not successfully weigh the well-being of a man in front of him against a hypothetical genocide.

[It doesn't matter. If he's the only one who knows, it has the same weight as if everyone knows. Still, sometimes he needs to share that.]

[passingthrough]

Oh. [Softer.] I'm sorry. That's... Well, it's a hard call for anyone. Harder with that kind of outcome. [She wonders if his programming shut him down or something else.]

[thezerothlaw]

I think of him, often. He is not the first friend I have lost, but he is the most recent.

[passingthrough]

How long ago was it for you?

[thezerothlaw]

It was relatively recent. It was a year before I came here, so just shy of two years altogether.

[Which is recent when you're two hundred years old.]

[passingthrough]

[Recent enough when something traumatic is involved.] That's a long time to have been here too.

[thezerothlaw]

It is. I find it discouraging. I have... responsibilities, at home. I left at a particularly uneasy point in time, and I would rather be there to oversee it.

[passingthrough]

Maybe you'll go back to the same point they retrieved you from. Not exactly something I find comforting, but always a possibility.

[thezerothlaw]

It would be ideal, for me. I understand it would not be ideal for everyone.