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.]]

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[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.