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

[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?

[thezerothlaw]

[A miscalculation. Oops. And she's not pleased, and this is precisely the sort of reaction that he was afraid of. Humans generally don't like the idea of a robot in their head. He could tamper with her to protect himself... but maybe that's not necessary. Maybe.]

You are correct. What I am mostly aware of is the texture of emotions someone is experiencing. Friend Giskard, who had the programming matrix before he gave it to me, was sometimes capable of hearing a distinct thought, if he was very familiar with someone's mind and it was a thought that was both clear and strong, but I have yet to experience such a thing. Right now, I know that you are disturbed by this, and feeling anxious and vulnerable. I assure you, Misha, that I don't mean to cause you distress.

[He does take a step backwards, all the same.]

[interspace]

[ She takes a deep breath, doesn't move from where she is. Her emotions are in flux but not dangerously so. Conflict. Reluctant understanding. Distress and guilt. She doesn't like this but she doesn't want to blame him for something he might not be able to control. ]

Can you turn it on and off, and-or do you have a choice in what you read in people?

[thezerothlaw]

It is a sense. I cannot turn it off any more than I can cease to hear or see. The texture of someone's mind is, now, as much a part of how I perceive someone as is their physical appearance.

[Which is all quite true, and he explains this as earnestly as he can.]

I cannot extract secrets, and I suspect that to do so would cause harm, which I do not desire. I only the emotions you experience now, and must extrapolate from that.

[interspace]

[ Her eyes close and her shoulders slump and hunch together. There's relief mixed in that storm of everything else. Of all her worries, at least her secrets are safe. ]

So you're an empath. Empathy more than telepathy. That's... the distinction we make where I'm from, between reading emotions and reading thoughts. [ She exhales, opens her eyes, forces a shrug. ] Hopefully I'm not being too loud or—abrasive? Everything's... a lot to take in.

[ Which is curious considering the amount of familiarity in the experience. There's fear of the unknown but a strange kind of resignation inside of it all that comes from her past experiences. An odd reaction to have, indeed. ]

[thezerothlaw]

[The line between 'empath' and 'telepath' seems a bit hazy to him, but he's not going to argue. In his experience, 'reading thoughts' just isn't how it works. Maybe it's different for someone far, far stronger, but his personal experience with telepathy comes down to himself. And Giskard before him.]

You have no need to apologise for anything. If I am in the habit of not revealing this, it is because I have no desire to be deactivated.

[interspace]

[ It's much easier for her to categorize if she's got control over it like that. If he can't dig into her mind, she's not nearly as worried. Still... it's rough knowing that someone else can tell how messed up she is by this whole thing. ]

Trust me, I hear you. A lot of people have the same reaction to admitting they're different. Humans don't like change in anything.

[thezerothlaw]

I admit that this is true, based on what I have seen. It is also true that people have rather different opinions towards robots in general, here. I am used to hiding much about myself. I am... not yet sure how open I can be, here.

[interspace]

Which, you know, is totally fair. If you want me to keep mum, that's not gonna be a hardship or anything.

[ She's good at secrets and talking around the issue at hand. Her shoulders slump. ]

Still, uh... if you need some distance from the storm that is Misha's Lack of Emotional Harbor right now, I wouldn't blame you.

[thezerothlaw]

I would appreciate your silence, though it isn't necessary in regards to my being a robot. For now, it is perhaps safest, that way.

[Is she... perhaps trying to be rid of him? That would be understandable.]

I do not need 'distance,' as you put it, but if you would rather I leave you, I understand completely.

[interspace]

Yeah, sure. I'll just razzle-dazzle 'em with my own powers and nobody will even think twice asking about yours.

[ It's not like her own powers have some kind of personal consequence for anyone else. Mind-reading, empathy, premonitions, all of those tend to make people so very cautious and she understands exactly why. ]

No, it... I could really use the distraction right now.