Libuscha IV System Mingle (no. 1)

[necromanswers]

Who: Everyone! OTA!
Broadcast: sure why not
Action: yeahhhhhh
When: 11/12 to 1/4 (minus 12/26)


It's Candlenights! Or Christmas! Or whatever! It's festive! Go celebrate, explore, go get free stuff from a tree!!

More importantly it's a mingle!

--SYSTEM INFORMATION--

Comments

[coinstability]

Maybe, yeah.

[It's a hard call though, considering the fallout from the revolution has yet to really hit them all. Connor knows how Markus intends to go forward from here, but he doesn't know if all the other androids will want to take that cooperative healing approach.]

My partner in the force hated androids when I was first assigned to him. He made that very clear. [Verbally and physically. Connor shakes his head, frowning a bit.] I don't know what it was exactly that got him to change his mind. We were working on deviant cases and I think after a while... I think he saw things differently.

[Connor is circumspect about it. While he's sure his continuous presence at Hank's side for that whole week had some part in it, Connor himself hadn't been a deviant at the time. It wasn't him pleading for his life, holding hands with a loved one, talking of peace and personhood. Connor had instead been twisting himself up in his own irrational actions on the road to deviancy.]

[unbearablynaive]

[The Vision huffs and crosses his arms. Sure, it had taken time for some of his team members to warm up to him, but there'd at least always been someone who was nice to him.]

While I'm happy to hear he came around, why on Earth would they assign you to someone who hated androids to begin with? Were they determined to put as many obstacles in your path as possible? I'll grant you that the end result may have been a success, but that's terrible business practice.

[coinstability]

[Connor hasn't had cause to look at it from the outside the way Vision does, so he merely shrugs a bit.]

Based on what the Captain said, everyone else was already overbooked with cases. [And then he adds, dryly:] And no one else wanted the job either.

[unbearablynaive]

That's hardly fair to you.

[But--is it really any different than when women first joined the police force, or humans from different cultural backgrounds? The trailblazer always has a harder job than those who follow, that much is well-documented. His expression softens as he considers it.]

Even so, it must have been nice to know there were other androids around - not the same model, perhaps, but with some extent of shared experiences. The closest thing I had to companionship were either humans or pure AI developed for research and combat.

[coinstability]

[That-- starts to cross into awkward territory for Connor, through no fault of Vision's. The nature of his work and his interactions with other androids was something that fell outside of the norm. Unease settles into his expression, the LED on his temple flickering into yellow for a few seconds.]

I'm afraid it wasn't that simple, Vision. I didn't interact with other androids unless it pertained to the mission. My purpose in assisting the police was to investigate cases involving deviant androids. I was meant to bring them in when possible. [And terminate them when not. Shaking his head, the LED returns to blue as Connor clasps his hands together on the table once more.] I wasn't someone any deviant wanted to see coming.

[unbearablynaive]

[He listens somberly and nods slowly. No, of course it wouldn't be as simple as all that, because when does this place ever bring in a typical example of anyone?]

I am sorry, then. And as a prototype, there weren't any others with your particular job at all, were there?

[And of course, he can't help but think of the one other person - AI, really - who could have had shared experiences with him, had things turned out differently.]

There was someone else like me - Ultron, one of my creators and the base for much of my coding. But he thought the world would be a better place without humans in it at all, and I did not; I killed him on the second day I was alive.

[coinstability]

No. There are no others like me.

[Leaving aside the small matter of his replacement bodies - which CyberLife attempted to use to stop him once he went rogue. Unlike other models though, the RK800 hasn't been mass produced. The chance of running into another android who looks identical to Connor is vanishingly small.

While he frowns a little at the description of Ultron, Connor isn't dismayed to hear about Vision having killed the other. He can hardly talk in that regard, given the bodies he left in his wake on the road to revolution.]

That sounds extreme. Maybe some androids in my world think that way as well - but Markus has always advocated for peace, not violence. He wants us to coexist. I imagine you feel the same way.

[unbearablynaive]

That, at least, we have in common.

[Even Ultron was pretty different from him, all things considered.]

I do. I find there's much to like about humanity, and the world is wide enough for all of us.

[He hesitates a moment, not quite sure how best to put the next part into words.]

I suppose you'd call me an idealist, but among them I see grace, courage, beauty, kindness, loyalty - qualities I want to bring out in myself. It cannot hurt to encourage those qualities in others.

[coinstability]

[Connor doesn't know if he can claim the same about humanity. He had spent most of his life programmed to serve it, protect it, regardless of how humans behaved. He had nearly caused the wipeout of all other androids because of that inbuilt motivation. Once he had gone rogue, he hadn't seen much to convince him of the overall good of humanity - but he had seen enough in one human to put his life over the revolution's. That counted for something.

It is idealistic. I'm not certain how much can be achieved, given what I've seen. But, [And this is the crucial part, where their interests align.] you're not incorrect that the potential for those things exist in all of us. Wiping out humanity is as pointless and cruel as wiping out all androids. We have to be better than that.

[unbearablynaive]

[That gets a warm smile.]

My thoughts precisely. I think we can work together to achieve a better future than either of our peoples could on their own.

[The next part may be a bit presumptuous, but he presses on anyway.]

And if there's anything I can help you with here to forward that goal, you need only to ask. I'm glad you're here.

[coinstability]

[It's a lot to offer, especially when Connor isn't sure it's warranted. Even so he finds himself smiling a bit in return. If nothing else he appreciates how ready Vision is to help and to understand where he's coming from, where not many others here are likely to.]

Thank you. I'm glad you are as well, Vision.