oo1 / video

[interspace]

WHO Misha Hunt
BROADCAST Fleet-wide video!
ACTION Marsiva hospitality deck
WHEN May 20th because I'm a loser

[ The comm is set down on a table, facing down to give a wide angle of a young redheaded woman who is basically standing inside of a couch. Phasing! She looks to the camera, brows raised very pointedly!! And then walks forward to one of the walls leading further into the Marsiva and pushes.

Nada.

She looks back to the camera. Walks back to the couch, does a slow turn around while standing inside of it, then goes back and pushes on the wall again. After a moment, she steps back, uses both hands to point at the stubborn wall. ]

Is anyone else seeing this shit?

Comments

action;

[interspace]

Oh, well, congratulations. You've met your first superhero.

[ It would be rude, and yet she's not going to be surprised if he does. Weirder shit's happened. ]

That's the thing, yeah. It's... way more than just solid. Something is up here.

Re: action;

[thezerothlaw]

I'm not familiar with the term "superhero." It does sound like a positive thing.

[He looks up at the wall, frowning thoughtfully.]

We are not meant to leave this place, evidently. Have you encountered something like this before?

[interspace]

People with extraordinary abilities who use them to protect people. Usually pitted against supervillains which are pretty much the opposite.

[ That explanation was... pretty unquestioning. The fact that she doesn't even blink to someone not knowing what should be common knowledge is telling. Honestly, considering that line of tension and fear, worry, anxiety and paranoia that's strong in her right now, her composure is almost crazy. This is not her first rodeo being thrown somewhere completely and utterly alien and having no one but herself to lean on to get through it. The familiarity of the situation, though, is utterly terrifying.

But, you know, she's going to show that to a stranger. ]

Not like this, no. Which is why it's weird. I haven't found anything I couldn't phase through yet.

[thezerothlaw]

[Well, that's an explanation that's far more close to what he knows than he expected. Interesting. Later, he would like to have an extended conversation with her about superheroes. Her emotional state, however, is far more concerning right now, even if she seems so outwardly calm.]

That is troubling, I admit. Still, I would advice against attempting to move through the walls of a spaceship without great care. It is possible that the intention is to keep us in, but it is also equally possible that the aim is to protect.

[interspace]

[ Yeah, her emotional state is way more fragile than she usually lets on. It helps that she has a voice in her ear for her and herself alone that's always stuck with her. At least these spacenappers haven't taken that, too. ]

Protect us from what? Why would they put us somewhere dangerous when they've got enough power to pull is here in the first place?

[thezerothlaw]

I merely imagine that it would not be beneficial for you to phase into a vacuum, or through an atomic hyperdrive, assuming this ship is like the ones I know.

[Look, he's trying to be reasonable.]

[interspace]

[ She fake-scowls, one or two of her frayed edges smoothing into a type of calm. ]

Why do you have to bring logic into this, huh? Still... that can't be all there is left to the ship.

[thezerothlaw]

A friend of mine informed me that robots are logical, but not reasonable. I am not entirely sure what he meant, but I am a robot.

[His expression is still as serious as ever.]

You are likely right, though. I have been on spaceships before, and there are a number of things missing from this place that are necessary.

[interspace]

A robot? [ She tilts her head, inspecting him more seriously now that she knows. ] ... I can see it. You look more like an android, though.

Such as crew, cockpit, emergency contingency equipment? Or, you know, anything?

[thezerothlaw]

That is precisely what I mean.

[She can tell? Impressive.]

To be fully accurate, I am what is called a 'humaniform robot,' but I believe 'android' is a synonym. Do you have experience with other robots, then?

[interspace]

[ It's more his demeanor than any physical traits, and you know, absurdly human robots and all. She isn't gonna call him a liar or anything. ]

Not... like, personal experience but anything is possible, you know?

[thezerothlaw]

[Ah, intuition. He admires it.]

I wouldn't have said 'anything,' but apparently I must adjust. My name is Daneel Olivaw.

[interspace]

Oh, it's definitely anything. [ Considering she's traveled the mutliverse... yeah, she never ever rules anything out in the long run. ] I'm Misha Hunt.

But, really? You're not up to the idea of anything being possible even if you're a manmade lifeform robot thing?

[ Her tension is still running high, but the conversation helps drown it out. This is something of a familiar lack of hope or safety, one she's used to bearing. Meeting new people can help. ]

[thezerothlaw]

I am pleased to meet you, Ms. Hunt.

[Oh, good. He's helping. This is exactly what he wanted.]

In some respects, I am a technologically advanced model, but robots are very common on Spacer worlds. There is nothing extraordinary about that. You, on the other hand, are capable of circumventing all the rules of physics I am aware of. It is... an adjustment.

[interspace]

Call me Misha. [ Ms. Hunt is unnecessarily formal considering their current situation and all. ]

Oh, please. Where I'm from, it's the kind of stuff any human can do depending on how their genetics get bent. Spacer worlds, though?

[thezerothlaw]

Misha, then.

[He does default to formality, but whatever she wants.]

The Spacer worlds are the fifty planets settled in the first wave of human settlement through the galaxy. My own creators were from Aurora, the first of these worlds. And yet, while Spacers are significantly longer-lived than humans from Earth or the more recently colonised Settler worlds, I have never heard of abilities such as yours. What other abilities are known, may I ask?

[Maybe he has an ulterior motive for that. Maybe.]

[interspace]

Um... a lot, really. Wow. Just to start, you've got mine: phasing and flight, kind of the same thing but not but also like one of the longest and most personal stories I've got, so deal with that. Uh, flight-phasing, and telekinesis, super-speed, elemental manipulation — like, earth, water, fire, air, wood, things like that. Power copying through touch. Absorption and manipulation of energy. Those are the ones I've dealt with the most.

What's with the lifespan difference for Spacers? Some kind of habitat thing, or rich and poor division? Or space racism? Space-ism. [ Hm. She squints at that last one. ]

[thezerothlaw]

You can fly? Would you be willing to demonstrate?

[That's... incredible. All of it is.]

Spacers live longer than Earthmen for a variety of reasons, but it comes down to a combination of access to superior medical care, many generations of selecting for favourable genetic traits, and a complete elimination of communicable disease. Most Spacers can expect to live two or three centuries, though this lifestyle has left them with a severely weakened immune system. There is regrettably a good deal of prejudice between Spacers and the shorter-lived Earthmen and the Settlers who have only relatively recently begun the second wave of colonization.

[interspace]

[ She shrugs, lifts her feet and crosses them, all without lowering herself to the ground at all. She's sitting on air and now resting her arms on her legs. This is comfortable, this is safe, this is all hers and generally invincible with the proper combination of her powers. It doesn't, however, make her strong. ]

So kind of a rich and poor thing with a dash of science. I guess Spacers don't get a chance to go out and explore often if they get sick from every little sneeze or cough. How do the Earthmen and Settlers get along?

[thezerothlaw]

Few Spacers have any desire to leave their estates in the first place. They are heavily dependant on robot labour and comfortable where they are. To be perfectly frank, it is a society that is stagnating, badly. Earthmen and Settlers are still closely linked, and many Settlers are only a generation or two removed from their ancestors on Earth.

[He circles around her a little, openly interested in her apparent disregard for gravity.]

This is extraordinary. This is certainly unlike anything I have ever witnessed before. How common are such abilities?

[interspace]

I'm seeing some parallels here to what's probably early Earth history to you. Hardship demands diversity, right? Peace without challenge is just... ugh, gross, I guess.

[ Yep. That's her incredibly eloquent way of saying it. When he circles, she waits until he's about done before her head dips down, her torso twists and her body lifts up until she's basically aloft upside down with her face at level with his. She's definitely smiling here. ]

Where I'm from? Not very, but it isn't impossible. Find the right energy to expose yourself to in a nonlethal dose and you, too, could probably get superpowers. [ She pauses. ] I mean, the general 'you'. I don't think it applies to robots? Unless androids have genetics. How do they work for you?

[thezerothlaw]

That is a very good way to put it. Hardship does demand diversity, and innovation as well. Humanity must grow outwards, not inwards.

[This is so neat. He's not really excited, because that's not really how he is, but he is incredibly interested all the same. He also has to sort this into a way that he can make sense of, because this isn't flight in the same sense as a bird or an aircraft.]

You seem able to consciously control the gravitational field in your immediate vicinity, due to a genetic abnormality. How very useful. It is true that I do not have genetics, though...

[He pauses, debating. It's not exactly a good thing, where he's from, for robots to have unusual abilities. It would be the sort of thing that would result in a robot being deactivated permanently in order to investigate what positronic abnormalities might have caused it, so that it can be prevented in future. He's... maybe not quite ready to admit to his own abilities.]

I am aware of some precedent for positronic abnormalities or unusual programming matrices producing mental abilities, though such things are considered mostly rumours, and undesirable in any case.

[interspace]

And you'd be damned how often humanity wants to just curl up in their shell and hide away. Yeesh.

[ It isn't quite gravitational control if he notices: her hair still falls downward and she has her arms crossed over her ribs to keep her shirt from flipping into her face. Since it looks like she's going to just be sitting there, someone speaks a reminder in her ear through the earpieces there: Feet on the floor, Misha. She just huffs and turns easily to stand once again on proper ground. ]

So, wait... are we talking like, actual-AI mental abilities, or something even more than that?

[ It's a small wonder she understood. Considering she's lived with a supergenius or two for the last seven years, though, it isn't too far out there. ]

[thezerothlaw]

[His hesitation is almost imperceptible -- almost.]

Telepathy, specifically.

[And oh, is he paying attention to her response to that.

[interspace]

[ That is too pointed a statement and too pointed a tone for her to really take it any other way. Combined with her heightened paranoia and the fact that he's practically going "a friend of mine said," it's not hard for her to jump to conclusions.

She tenses, watches him. Her anxiety ramps up, the feeling of isolation, the need to protect something. Vulnerability. People inside of her head are generally Not Welcome. ]

How much have you read off me so far?