Open Gen Post

[mundaati]

OPEN POST



-my muselist is here
-mention who you want in the subject line
-leave me a prompt/picture/whatever
-???
-profit

Comments

[igniting]

I've been called worse.

[She says it dryly, but he's right. Red is a no go.]

It's Aloy.

[epsilol]

Cool. And uh, nice spear I guess.

[ He makes himself at home in Aloy's focus. Designates some space for his subroutines and carefully makes them private because hey guess who knows how to do that shit. He might have also casually made Aloy's personal files private from other focus users. Sorry not sorry, Sylens. ]

Can we go now? I have literally been in this fucking bunker for hundreds of years.

[igniting]

Thanks.

[And yeah, yeah, they can get going. Aloy makes her way out of the room, heading back towards the entrance. They're going to run into a lot more bodies on the way, but there's nothing she can do about that.]

There are new machines now. You think you can handle them?

[epsilol]

If it's a machine I can break it, it's what I was made for.

[ How bad can it be? If humans are alive that means whatever is out there isn't actively wiping the species off the face of the planet. Epsilon goes invisible for the moment, piping his voice to her through the focus. ]

How tough can they be if you're hunting them with a fucking bow anyways.

[igniting]

[What did she do to deserve this? Pissed someone or something off, apparently. Aloy picks her way around a half collapsed room, shaking her head.]

I'd hold your judgment until you see them. I've taken down Deathbringers with a bow, too. [Wait, he doesn't know what that means.] The Khopesh.

[epsilol]

So you brought down a machine made hundreds of years ago with a bow and arrow. I'm very impressed. Also? Fuck the khopesh line. And the scarabs. Actually, just fuck Ted Faro.

[ What a dick. He helped destroy the world just to make a profit. Maybe humanity getting wiped out was inevitable. If Faro Industries didn't do it, someone else would have. ]

Is their biomatter conversion protocol disabled at least?

[igniting]

I don't know what that means, but I think I agree with you.

[The vehement way he says it gives her a hint, anyway.]

I haven't seen them use their conversion capabilities, but there aren't many of them still active.

[epsilol]

...you don't-

[ Sorry if Gaia and CYAN gave you the idea that AIs had dignity, Aloy. Epsilon is throwing that all out the window with his groan of absolute horror. ]

Ted Faro destroyed swearing. Everyone I know is dead and humanity forgot how to use swear. Today sucks.

[igniting]

[She lets out a long suffering sigh. He's going to get used to that sound, probably.]

What are you talking about?

[epsilol]

Swearing! You know, what you say when you're pissed off or need to emphasize something! You guys have to have some kind of swearing!

[igniting]

[They finally reach the entrance to the bunker—a makeshift one, at least, and Aloy is hit with a gust of frigid air as she steps outside. She shivers reflexively despite herself.]

Of course we do. I don't know what that one means.

[epsilol]

Okay so you know when two humans are attracted to each other very much and decide the be disgusting and act on their urges?

[ Looking at the temperature change, Epsilon is suddenly pretty grateful he can't feel the cold. Must suck being organic. ]

Fuck is the crude way to describe that.

[igniting]

[Aloy rolls her eyes, then begins to ease her way down the cliff she had to climb up. She's a big girl, Epsilon! Use your words!]

I've never heard anyone describe sex as disgusting.

[epsilol]

That's because humans are drowning in hormones that make sex sound like a good idea. All the fluids? Gross.

[ The human body is a mess. He analyzes the cliff as she starts her descent. ]

Go for the ledge to your right. The one on the left is unstable. And like a bad start to this whole partnership if you fall and break your legs in the middle of bumfuck nowhere.

[igniting]

Ugh.

[Does he have to say fluids? Gross. And the suggestion is a little unexpected, so Aloy hesitates for a second before doing as he says and dropping down. That ledge is a bit wider, anyway, which means she can shimmy her way to a different set of handholds rather than hanging from it.]

Was every AI made for military support like you?

[epsilol]

You mean we're they all as charming as me? No. They weren't. Military AI were supposed to all be dumb programs, no higher cognitive skills.

[ Every so often he suggests a slight alteration to her path, pointing out weak spots in the rocks that should be avoided. ]

They started cutting corners when the Swarm happened. I'm technically a fragmented AI, that's why I can ride along in your focus.

[igniting]

[And she follows his instructions. She gets to level ground much faster than she expected, she has to admit.]

Fragments. You mentioned that before. How do you fragment an AI?

[Unless he was the subordinate function of another AI, like Gaia, but that doesn't seem to be what he's saying.]

[epsilol]

...the same way you break a person. You hurt it. If it wasn't for the fact that the world was ending the military never would have approved it. They needed support for troops and dummy AIs weren't creative enough.

He doesn't sound thrilled about it, even as he justifies what they did. It was war, people did fucked up shit during wars. ]

I used to be part of an AI called Alpha. He was... special. They created him from brain scans of our project's leader.

[igniting]

[Aloy stops, processing that.]

I guess using a scan would be easier than building one from scratch.

[Still, it's not something she ever considered. She's not sure how she feels about it.]

There weren't... rules against that? Against fragmenting?

[epsilol]

Oh, it was super fucking illegal. If it wasn't the end of the world the Director never would have gotten away with it. If Enduring Victory had worked he would have been charged as a war criminal.

[ Because smart AIs were a valuable resource, and more than that they were thinking, emotional beings and torturing them was unethical. ]

I was the last piece of Alpha. All the other fragments were in the field when I was cleared for service.

[igniting]

So they tortured you. That's...

[She trails off, shaking her head in disgust. It's unthinkable.]

[epsilol]

They tortured Alpha. I'm just a byproduct.

[ Epsilon appears again just to shrug. He repressed the memories of the torture, picked at his own code until he could function properly again. ]

It was war, people do shitty things when they think it's justified.

[igniting]

Yes, they do, and that's what got us here in the first place.

[#TedFaroSucks]

[epsilol]

[ Epsilon hums a few bars from a song that's been forgotten for hundreds add years now. Something about war and what it's even good for. ]

So, are you always this cheerful?

[igniting]

Do you want me to be more cheerful while we're talking about something like this?

[Does she sound just a tiny bit defensive? Definitely not.]