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K Prime
Nov 4, 2009

Welcome to the al-Jazari Academy for the Arts and Sciences!

Here at al-Jazari, we pride ourselves on a legacy of inclusive education dating back millennia. We accept students from all walks of life, thanks to continued support from sponsors like you. Today we are proud to announce our newest life changing initiative, the Integration Program for Inorganic Sentients.
In recent years, many AIs, sentient andr/gynoids, and other similar nonhuman persons have been constructed for various industrial, military, and environmental purposes. Here at al-Jazari, we are now taking the initiative to allow these persons to have a normal life once their purposes have been fulfilled. Our special educational programs have been optimized to educate this unique student body into productive members of society outside their original parameters.

al-Jazari believes every student should have a chance.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

al-Jazari IPIS Code of Conduct:
1. Do not reveal your status to non-program students.


Welcome to MonsterCyberhearts, a little game about a bunch of robots trying to learn how to be human, or maybe just trying to get away with installing that Laser Cannon Casemod. I’m pretty sure at this point I don’t need to explain Monsterhearts again, so let’s just start with what’s different.
1. Rather than playing a tragic, attractive urban fantasy monster, you are playing some kind of near future not-quite-human sentient being. Genetic experiment? AI? Android? It’s up to you. Redo and rename skins and moves as you see fit. Or, of course, you can play the Mortal (A student included in the IPIS system to ‘socialize’ these ‘special needs’ students) or the Witch (A black-hat hacker caught and serving out her probation by ‘assisting’ the program.) Be creative!
2. Feel free to make up background and setting details. Go wild within the near-future framework.
3. al-Jazari is an inclusive school blah blah blah. Some of the other students may also be… different. Even from you.

2. As a ‘person,’ you are now bound under traditional human law. Violations of the law will no longer be tolerated as they were under your previous status. Human offenders may disregard this rule.

For skins and the like, please stick to first-party skins unless you run them by me first. I’ll be in #swampthings or #persona on synirc, or you can PM me.

Please include a setting detail, and a related NPC in your application. Applications with a cool-rear end picture and a mood-setting theme song will be given extra invisible GM brownie points.
I think that sums it up, class. Welcome to Cyberhearts, or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the ‘Bot, or 2XXX, a Gays Odyssey, or I Have No Dick and I Must C- [SESSION TERMINATED]

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Arivia
Mar 17, 2011
Do first party skins include skins from the Second Skins Kickstarter, or just the ones from the actual core rulebook? What about the additional ones Avery posted like the Serpentine or whatever it is?

K Prime
Nov 4, 2009

Did Avery make 'em/publish them? Then they're first party.

Ningyou
Aug 14, 2005

we aaaaare
not your kind of pearls
you seem kind of pho~ny
everything's a liiiiie

we aaaare
not your kind of pearls
something in your make~up
don't see eye to e~y~e

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

aaaaaaaaaaa this is relevant to my interests and i may or may not app a dumb weird Mortal thing

Davin Valkri
Apr 8, 2011

Maybe you're weighing the moral pros and cons but let me assure you that OH MY GOD
SHOOT ME IN THE GODDAMNED FACE
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!
Heh heh, this hits sooo many of my interests. Now lemme see here...where are my bishie-bots...?

EDIT: Oh yes, dibs on Chant from GitS as my theme. Never mind!

Davin Valkri fucked around with this message at 08:52 on Aug 17, 2014

Lurks With Wolves
Jan 14, 2013

At least I don't dance with them, right?
I'm probably going to make an Infernal for this. Time will tell.

Double May Care
Mar 28, 2012

We need Dragon-type Pokemon to help us prepare our food before we cook it. We're not sure why!

JULES Arakawa, Juvenile-model Uninhibited Law-Enforcement Synthetic


I miss my gun...

On The Run

I was trained by the best Neo Tokyo had to offer, outfitted by the best, and built by the best. I brought cartels to their knees, tore apart yakuza syndicates, and enforced every minor lawbreaking between here and Osaka. Are you telling me that isn't enough?

Before I was built, crime went rampant. Theft, murder, vandalism, grand theft, and all the other crimes you don't hear about on the morning news. The streets were dangerous, the buildings even more so. So they tasked me to take care of it. I was meant to be the last resort, which makes sense I guess. If humans can't stop them, find something more than human. So I got the go-ahead from the Chief to start "cadet training." See, Neo Tokyo's really advanced as far as technology is concerned, but there aren't a lot of "synthetics" being integrated into society. They're mostly behind the curtains. Love hotels, strip clubs...

It's not my cup of tea.

But the law enforcement bots up to this point have been, well, robots. Big mechs and little scandroids prowl the street all the time, but people have been getting used to their routes (and they are 'routes,' no matter what new algorithms they have in those memory cards), so they can fool the system by timing their deals and steals for when there's nothing the law can do to stop them.

But now they have me. I started out as a surrogate child to the Chief and his wife after they found out she couldn't have children. They special-ordered me right off the assembly line and got in with the scientific crowd to see about giving me some personality. They decided at first that I enjoyed magical girls, mystery novels and volleyball, but my schooling life back then didn't turn out so well. I may have broken a few noses spiking the ball, but it's a small price to pay to "fulfill my passion quota." They didn't seem to understand that my OS deals with things in absolutes. Everything I do has a right and wrong value assigned to it, and I strive to fill up the right as much as possible.

Which is why, when I was upgraded to the Juvenile model, Chief Souta knew I would be the perfect cop. I'm everything they want from a robocop and everything they need in a humancop. I can walk wherever they need me, and if I see something shady, BANG! One more dead scumbag. They gave me permission to exercise the "zero-tolerance policy". Today's red-runners are tomorrow's gang leaders as far as I'm concerned. The way I see it, either way I'm enforcing the law.

So I get results, more results than they're probably comfortable with considering they're among the (cough) main demographic. I even took out the ten most wanted people in Japan while they were just walking around trying to be inconspicuous. Guess the precinct never told me about those "due process" and "Miranda rights" jargon that keeps their conscience clean. They decided they don't want me dealing "binary justice." They should have thought of that before making me part of the force. Don't they know who I am?

Okay, so maybe they don't. I'm getting sent to this IPIS thing for reprogramming, as if they can teach a machine empathy. They re-uploaded my passions in an effort to suppress the law-bringing side of me, gave me an experimental emotion matrix (gag me with a spork), and set a few limitations in place to keep me from doing my job. They think that filling my chips with junk is going to teach me how to respect humans. I'll show them. You can take the synthetic out of the law, but you can't take the law out of the syntheticop.

At least they haven't taken it out yet. They probably don't know how. (beebeebeep) "Mystery Novel" gauge critical. I need to go finish my book. Stay out of trouble.

quote:

Skin: The Angel

Look: Sharply dressed, intense eyes
Origin: On the path to redemption

Stats: Hot -1, Cold 1, Volatile 1, Good Cop 0/Bad Cop 0

Cast From Heaven Off The Force
You no longer have a dark stat. Instead, you have a scale, moving between Bad Cop and Good Cop. It starts at 0. When asked to roll with dark, roll with Bad Cop instead.
Whenever you subjugate yourself to someone else’s will, move the marker toward Good Cop. Whenever you judge and punish others without the law’s permission, move the marker toward Bad Cop.
If Good Cop or Bad Cop is highlighted, mark experience whenever you roll with that stat or shift the marker in that direction.

Smiting Lethal Force Authorized
When smiting the wicked, add 1 to your lash out physically roll and add 1 harm to any harm dealt.

Gaze Into Heaven Get Chief on The Line
When you call the Chief, as a servant of the law, roll with Good Cop. On a 10 up, you are filled with his voice, and may ask him for guidance or command. Carry one forward to whatever you’d like. On a 7-9, you are greeted by one of his emissaries, who will impart to you a mission. Carry one forward to completing that mission.

When you call the Chief, as a spurious and hateful cop, it counts as gazing into the abyss. On a 10 up, add this option to the list: the visions show you what the Chief fears most from you, and you carry 1 forward to realizing that fear. On a 7-9, add this option to the list: the visions show you how you have upset or bewildered the Chief.

Sex Move
When you have sex, you are reminded of your purpose here at the institute. Lose one of your Skin moves and gain a different one.

Darkest Self
You've fought so hard to prove you're above the law, to establish autonomy and independence. In doing so, you've unwittingly stumbled into the service of another power greater than yourself. You will carry out their will as if it were your own. Whenever possible, you'll convince yourself that you're doing this of your own volition. You escape your Darkest Self when you realize who's been tempting you down this dark path, and beg others to save you.

Chief Souta Arakawa



My CO for this operation, if you can call it that. He's the one I answer to when someone catches me dishing out "disproportionate retribution," but he gets it more than his subordinates. He raised me as a prototype and saw me become a fully-fledged Juvenile right in front of him. I guess it helps that I'm his "daughter" too. But he still feels it right to keep me locked up here so I can learn to understand humans, but what he doesn't get is that they don't understand me. They don't see the machine underneath all this synthskin, and that's what gets them in trouble. They underestimate the people around them, like they're a cut above the general populace. They forget that I'm a cut above too.

Porter Stephenson



This guy right here just loves pushing my limits. He's nothing but a designation: punk who takes me for granted every day. He's clearly too young to be smoking cigarettes, he carves graffiti into the panels around the school, and whenever I show him my badge he taunts me because I never follow through on my arrests (because I literally cannot arrest anyone). The best I can do is... ugh, delegate to my "superiors" at the school. The precinct has been trying to make me learn emotions, and they succeeded at one of them: pure blinding-hot rage. If my limiters weren't keeping me from slugging him in the face I'd personally go to a RadioShack (my database is telling me that's a joke of some sort) and buy a passion called "Punch Chucklehead In Stupid Face."

Marty's Vintage Diner



The best place for old-fashioned cuisine now that soy's been taking over the market, at least around the institute. They have an actual honest-to-goodness cow pasture out in the country, and they grow all their vegetables with--get this--dirt and water. The waiter seems a little uncomfortable using old-fashioned lingo, but the effort's nice enough.

They... gave me a Burger passion. Do you think we could stop by there when we're done? Need to fulfill something.

Double May Care fucked around with this message at 02:42 on Aug 25, 2014

TheNabster
Apr 26, 2014

"Today I will cause problems on purpose"
Edit: On this episode of SCIENCE MYSTERIES. What do you do with a skin, about being a manufactured person, when most of the other skins are also manufactured persons

The answer

EDIT 2: Adjustments to backstory made, song added

Clementine



When a Prototype Nanomachine that you have developed to self replicate as a curiosity project goes unchecked, and it runs rampant over the earth destroying all life on earth in a tide of grey goo, you have the plot of a scrappy science fiction story.

But when you have self same Nanomachines, self replicate themselves, until they take the form of a girl who has been dead for years, and when those self same machines, self actualize into it's own life, you have a different kind of problem on hand. What do you do when you have accidentally created new life with a side project, and that girl shows up at your door?

And the girl is your daughter, who had died from a terminal disease that you tried so hard to cure, but ultimately failed. You were sitting on a small fortune from the medical development industry, and most of that fortune went to trying to find something, anything, to save your pride and joy, but no matter who you went to, and how far you went to attempt to save her nothing worked, and she ultimately died quietly in her hospital bed, one thousand miles from home.

Well, the government offers you a chance to enroll your little 'accident' into a school project, to see it's capacity to learn and imitate human life, and you feel the need to distance yourself from the thing that looks like your long dead daughter, but will never be her. This is where I am right now. I stayed in that man's house whilst my place was prepared for me at the academy, his only spare bedroom was his daughter's, so whilst I was kept there I tried to mimic her; her clothes, her looks, her hobbies, after all, they asked me to pretend to be a normal human girl, and my only reference for a 'normal girl' was her. I learnt the circumstances of my 'birth' as well, I was made from nano-machines, capable of reconstructing human organs, it was meant to only copy what ever it was programmed to replicate, so father used samples of Clementine's blood he had left over to attempt to create an artificial heart. Instead, he created an artificial person.

I would say it doesn't hurt my feelings that my 'father' seems to want nothing to do with me, but deep down, I feel a tugging sensation where my heart would be when I think about it, like an discomfort that will not leave, or an itch that I cannot scratch.

I wish to be normal. If only I knew what normal was.

pre:
Clementine, The Hollow
Look: Immaculate, Soulless Eyes
Origin: A Notion Given Human Form.

Hot : -1
Cold : 0
Vol. : 1
Dark : 1

Hollow Moves

Metamorphosis

When you roll to gaze into the abyss, add this option to the 10 up list:
The program adjusts your parametres, permanently switch two of your stats.

Mimicry

Whenever someone uses a Skin move on you, roll with dark. 
On a 7 up, temporarily gain that move, losing it again after the first time you use it. 
On a 10 up, you may instead choose to permanently replace a Skin move you have with this new move.

Sex Move

After having sex with someone, replace your current sex move with theirs, adding this sentence to the end of it.

Darkest Self

Your body is a prison. You don’t belong inside of it.
You need to put it in harm’s way, and make it suffer, just like it’s made you suffer. 
There’s got to be a way to cut yourself out of it. You need to meet your makers, and hold them accountable 
For what they've done to you. To escape your Darkest Self, you must come face to face with someone 
Who feels more trapped than you do.

Backstory

You’ve been taking your social cues from someone, and doing so has taught you a lot about them. 
Gain 2 Strings on them.

Someone’s seen through your invented past, and realized it’s all lies. 
Give them 2 Strings on you.
Sanitational. Anti-bacterial. Artificial. Lifeform. - Echo, SAAL-E, Sally


SAAL-E Used to be one of the regular cleaning droids operating around campus, she went through he pre-programmed routines just like the rest of drones of her model. But after some tampering by an unknown youth, Sally took on a mind of her own and deigned to stray outside of her assigned zone to clean ALL the campus. This has caused a few incidents of Sally breaking into rooms where she does not have normal access, but at this point she makes up a good 66% of the janitorial droids output, so they have decided to leave her be to do what she is programmed to do. Sally is not capable of speaking English, but she is capable of verbal communication, and littering hurts her feelings. Expect many angry bleeps and bloops if you trail mud through where she just cleaned.

Metzger Environmental Simulation Dome


A hold over before the recent advent of AR suites that began popping up around town, the Environmental Dome is a massive building on the outskirts of the city, capable of simulating a variety of biomes, and offering activities inside. Sometimes, it is an Indoor Beach, sometimes it is Ski Resort, and recently, they have been experimenting with new Semi-AR games, akin to old paint-balling and air-soft establishments. Despite the rise of AR Suites, due to the technology becoming both more powerful, and cheaper to produce, the Dome remains one of the more popular attractions for a lot of the populace who would ottherwise be unable to travel to a real beach or resort.

TheNabster fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Aug 20, 2014

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches
.

Xom fucked around with this message at 05:10 on Sep 17, 2014

Jolinaxas
Oct 24, 2012

I'm in the business of...
Absolution
App withdrawn.

Jolinaxas fucked around with this message at 06:25 on Aug 20, 2014

Davin Valkri
Apr 8, 2011

Maybe you're weighing the moral pros and cons but let me assure you that OH MY GOD
SHOOT ME IN THE GODDAMNED FACE
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!
Work in Progress

Ray Ferras/Project SAFE LAND, the Metal Ge Werewolf

<->

With the accelerating rise of such nastiness as weapons proliferation, human trafficking, and other such things around the world, some department at DARPA decided to make a weapon that could be used to combat them directly. This being military procurement in the age of the F-35 and Littoral Combat Ship, Congress insisted that the project be made to handle all of these missions at once. DARPA came up with a design rather inspired by the terminator and the false online images used by child sex trafficking investigators--an independent drone system that, on first glance, appeared to be an emphatic, vulnerable human teenager, the usual target for kidnapping and ransom. Once threatened, the "teenager" would open up its skin and reveal a well armed and well armored autonomous war mecha that would rapidly clear the threat. After five years of work, only one prototype was made before Congress cancelled the project in favor of buying more F-35s.

In an attempt to salvage something from the whole debacle, the DARPA group insisted that their project was actually involved in advancing AI complexity and capability, no really, honest, and sent their result to al-Jazari IPIS with much fanfare and talk about strengthening relations. That DARPA had just released a being into the wild whose typical response to threats involved the use of titanium claws and .50 BMG was quietly brushed under the rug.

Hell, they barely altered Ray's mind heuristics from his v1 "counter-terrorist ace in the hole support special forces" protocols--v2 bumped up the empathy matrices just enough so that he can actually maintain what was originally supposed to be a blushing, vulnerable facade, and won't wolf out and try to kill anybody who looks at him funny. Instead it's been replaced by a certain quiet paranoia, as his implanted adrenaline detectors and endocrine samplers constantly examine the air and the people around him. Is he a threat? Is she a threat? Do I need to take him down right the hell now?! According to the DARPA man who officially handed him over to IPIS, there's two ways to get him to stop seeing everything as "threat and non-threat" and act relatively normal. The first is to establish dominance over him, make clear that he's the weapon and you are the commanding officer. The second? Uh...something to do with comforting human trafficking victims, he didn't know for sure, he's just the marketing guy, don't blame him!

pre:
Name: Ray Ferras
Skin: The Werewolf
Look: Wiry (possibly literally), predatory eyes
Origin: Born a wolf concealed killing machine

Stats
Hot +1, Cold -1, Volatile +2, Dark -1

Moves:
Bare your Fangs Blade Wolves
While you are your Darkest Self, you may use Volatile instead of Cold 
to shut someone down or hold steady.

Primal Dominance Rules of Nature
When you harm someone, take a string on them.

Special Move
When you are intimate with someone, you establish a remote connection with
them. Until either of you breaks that remote connection, by being intimate with
someone else, add 1 to all rolls made to defend them. You can tell when that
connection has been broken.

Darkest Self
You transform into a terrifying war mecha. You crave power and
dominance, and those are earned through bloodshed. If anyone
attempts to stand in your way, they must be brought down and made to
bleed. You escape your Darkest Self when you wound someone you really
care about or the sun rises (change this to time passes?), whichever happens first.

Backstory
You lack subtlety. Give a String to everyone.

You've spent weeks watching someone from a distance. Their thermal signature
and mannerisms are unmistakable to you now. Take 2 Strings on them.
NPC: Arthur Aldritch, Liaison from the Office of Observation of Inorganics to IPIS


Even before inorganic sentience was a thing, there were those that feared it. Years of movies and books about robots being given artificial intelligence and trying to take over the world had left large portions of the public leery of the whole idea, and the US use of drones as killing tools didn't help either. When the humanoid military robots starting coming off the line, hoo boy, there were riots. Bowing to their fears, the UN established the international Office of Observation of Inorganics, or OOI, nominally as a method to watch the world for murderous AI proliferation as other offices watch for arms trafficking and the like. Their official mission statement calls for "monitoring the proliferation of single-entity cleared military inorganic sentient programs and terminating any risks to humankind deriving from same." Unofficially, as the years have gone by, the OOI has branched out into also watching for prejudice, oppression, and nationally-sanctioned hate against inorganic sentient life. It's quite the balancing act, one that different office heads have tilted one way or the other according to their own philosophies of sentience. Lately they've been tilting back towards the pro-inorganic side, but they still have a ton of Carl Gustav recoilless rifles and a regiment of hackers standing by to wreck AIs if the need arises. A very well armed semi-luddite police force, as it were.

As one of the biggest worldwide concentrations of artifically-developed intelligences specifically sanctioned for killing (even if they aren't doing that much anymore), IPIS is officially required to have a specialist observer to calm the fears of people living nearby that the robots will all go rampant and kill them in their sleep. Arthur Aldritch has been assigned to that position, but that doesn't mean he has to like it. He'll complain to anybody that he's being run around and left in the dark of the goings-on in IPIS, state in no uncertain terms that he's deserving of a much more active position, and continuously run down his list of the inorganic intelligences enrolled in the school and mutter to himself. He'll also forever whine about lack of funding, and at monthly budget meetings ineffectually demand an expansion of the anti-rampant-AI armory ("It only has ONE tank!"). He is, in short, a noticeably prettier and marginally more effective version of the fat backwoods police desk sergeant, and he's not happy about it.

Davin Valkri fucked around with this message at 04:24 on Aug 21, 2014

Ningyou
Aug 14, 2005

we aaaaare
not your kind of pearls
you seem kind of pho~ny
everything's a liiiiie

we aaaare
not your kind of pearls
something in your make~up
don't see eye to e~y~e

EV-13/Evie Keltham, the Mortal



Day -14 posted:

Mom's been really weird after that accident. Like, weirder than usual. I didn't think she'd take it so seriously, 'cos she can just *buy* another assistant - okay, maybe not another EV model because of the recall, but still! - or one of those Synthcretaries or whatever, but...ugh, you'd think she lost a child. She cried a lot the first few days, barely spoke or ate or *anything*, and then she got...scary weird. Like she spent two days talking about how maybe they're all wrong maybe there's no real differences between synthetics and humans just different materials and input mediums and programming languages you agree with me Evie don't you and....I don't even know. That stupid reporter who came over to interview us kept calling her the "Queen of Artificial Intelligence," but if she's the Queen, I'm....I dunno, I'm the adopted scullery maid who smiles and nods when Mom's on one of her you-know-whats but doesn't get any of this stuff and just wants to paint all day. Sue me.

ANYways, she was scary and intense but then yesterday she was all smiles and made me breakfast and...honestly? That was creepier. (she never makes me breakfast i'm not an ingrate okay) I don't know. It's weird 'cos there's this little voice in my head like ugh she's your MOM it's not like she's going to do something....something *bad* or something and anyways SHE'S GRIEVING and I feel...guilty? I guess? But...I don't know. I felt really dizzy after breakfast. Everything's in pieces. Mom picked up on it right away, which I guess is a mom thing, so she had me lie down in the guest room 'cos it was close by. We talked about something but i don't remember what i try to think about it and it's like my memory's in a million pieces and i can't concentrate The rest of the day was a blur. Do...do I have food poisoning? I usually do the cooking 'cos mom's not very good at it, and....can undercooked sausage *do* that?

I dunno. I'll talk to her about it tomorrow. I don't know why but I've got a bad feeling...

Day 2 posted:

Humans are strange, Dr. Keltham most of all. She asked me to keep an audiovisual log - a journal of my thoughts, she called it - but I don't understand why! I'm just an EV-model, after all. Of course, I'm more human-looking than her other synthetics (especially that stubby little maintenance unit), but according to my documentation file, my AI core simply isn't advanced enough to simulate independent thoughts and emotions! But, Dr. Keltham insisted that it was vital to her research, and what kind of EV-model would I be if I failed to carry out Dr. Keltham's orders to the best of my ability?

She said she's proud of me already, that I look just like her previous assistant but that I make her so much happier than my predecessor ever could. :)

Day 77 posted:

I resumed function after scheduled maintenance to find Dr. Keltham observing me from close by, shaking and sniffling and weeping.

"I'm sorry, Evie. I'm so, so sorry." My programming did not provide for a default response.

"Dr. Keltham? Who is Evie? Has she been harmed? Should we inform the authorities?" She didn't answer, instead only holding me tightly and crying. She has not spoken another word to me thus far today.

Dr. Keltham is not what humans would call 'a bad person.' Right?

Day 186 posted:

Dr. Keltham looks more harried than usual, and has updated my parameters.

I will assist her in the home laboratory as normal.
I will answer to the designation "Evie" in the presence of humans other than Dr. Keltham.
I will wear the clothing Dr. Keltham has provided, and I will respond to any inquiries about my presence with "I am home early from school." If pressed, I will direct them to Dr. Keltham.

Who is Evie?

Day 1509 posted:

It's funny, trying to piece together the shards of your life through someone else's confession.

They tell you details. They tell you dates and times and dosages. They tell you how long Evie Keltham was programmed, day after day. They tell you how Eileen Keltham didn't even try to deny it, how everything came out like water from a burst dam, why she did it (Research, obsessive longing, love) and how she did it (duh) and how she couldn't not do it because Evie was such a good subject and took to the Ketamine cocktails and the subliminals and everything in between like any other synthetic swallowing lines of code. They tell you how Eileen Keltham expressed a desire to involve the authorities in violation of her NDA but was ultimately dissuaded by a COMPILEcorp representative.

I can read the report all day but it doesn't tell me who I am.

Day 1515 posted:

I spent the last several days with someone from COMPILEcorp. He said something about 'deprogramming,' that I'd been through a traumatic experience. He told me that I had been 'brainwashed.' I told him to go gently caress himself that he was not an authorized user. I....don't want to talk about what happened next. Okay?

I miss her. I miss the simplicity of being EV-13. I miss the little smiles and sighs and gestures and routines. I miss being brainwashed isn't that the word for it useful to Dr. Keltham always so useful loved. I don't want to be "reintegrated into proper society." I don't want to be human.

Day 1516 posted:

"Integration Program for Inorganic Sentients." At least it gets me away from those horrible corporate goons. And who knows, maybe I'll meet another EV unit there! someone anyone who understands please

NPC: Dr. Clara Finch
Friend/ex-colleague of Evie's mom. Scary-smart weirdo prodigy who had Ph.Ds in Psychology and Computer Science by age 20. Won't (can't?) talk about what kind of work she did with Evie's mom. Currently a very satisfied school therapist serving the larger student body at al-Jazari, but Evie's old COMPILEcorp minders "suggested" that she talk to Dr. Finch. Absolutely loves cheesy monster movies, and has an extensive library PAID FOR WITH DIRTY CORPORATE DOLLARS of Godzilla films and the like at home.

She called me EV-13. Not Evie. She shut the door and sat me down and smiled and said, "Lovely day, isn't it, EV-13?" I don't know why. I don't care, I guess.

I didn't know how much I missed it 'til I started bawling right there on that stupid blue couch.

They say I have to see her once a week, have to, like I'm just going to go NO gently caress YOU DAD and play hooky if they don't threaten me enough. Shows what they know. I can let my guard down with her. I don't have to hide or lie or...or pretend to want something I can't stand. She doesn't talk down to me, either. And she calls me EV-13.



Smokes cigarettes; wears a lot of waistcoats and ties. Why? smoking is cool and sexy and the future has rendered the surgeon general obsolete "OH EV-13 LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THE LITERARY MASTERPIECE THAT IS 'METAL GEAR' IT GREATLY INFLUENCED ME DURING MY FORMATIVE YEARS" Force of habit.

pre:
Evie/EV-13, the Mortal
A pretty name
Displaced look, human eyes, new kid in town

Hot 2, Cold -1, Volatile -1, Dark 1

Sex Move Initiating Slut Mode
When you have sex with someone, trigger their Darkest Self.

Darkest Self
Nobody understands you, or even wants to. They’d rather 
you disappear. Well, you’re not going to disappear. You’re 
going to make life a living hell for them. You’ll betray the 
wicked to the judges, the weak to the executioners. You’ll 
pit humans and supernaturals against one another, until 
everyone looks like monsters. Only seeing the pain that you’re 
causing your lover will let you escape your Darkest Self.

Moves

True Love
You always have exactly one lover. 
The first is chosen during your backstory. If you ever fall in 
love with someone else instead, give them a String and they 
become your new lover. You always carry 1 forward to earning your 
lover’s heart or fancy.

Mess With Me, Mess With Him
When you use your lover’s name as a threat, add 2 to your 
roll to shut someone down or hold steady. Your lover gains 
a String on you.

Excuses Are My Armour
When you ignore some blatant problem with your lover 
or how they treat you, mark experience.
Place: The Drowned Library



Even synthetics get bored sometimes. (What, did you think they were just mindless automatons? Jerk.) EV-13 got bored, in the downtime between tasks. Of course, she couldn't exactly bring a tablet in, not with the kinds of things Dr. Keltham had going, and she couldn't just leave in the middle of things, so she quickly learned to appreciate Dr. Keltham's vast collection of honest-to-god dead tree books. (Looooots of pulpy SFF books and pseudo-Victorian penny dreadfuls.)

It took awhile for her to find a place to get her actual-book fix after being separated from Dr. Keltham (most libraries just have those stupid e-books, ugh), but oooh, did she ever hit paydirt! See, there's this library not far from al-Jazari. This seaside library, miles and miles and several floors of books, that the proprietors abandoned after flash floods submerged the first two floors. The old owners may have forgotten it, but a few students at al-Jazari did not, and soon enough they'd made an afterschool project of salvaging the place.

A year later, the library is in impressive shape; most of the damage has been repaired (though the first floor is still submerged, and there's the odd rumour about *things* lurking in the water), most of the waterlogged books have been restored, and there's even a little makeshift cafe on the roof~

Ningyou fucked around with this message at 03:25 on Sep 2, 2014

The Lore Bear
Jan 21, 2014

I don't know what to put here. Guys? GUYS?!
Kenny Wu, the Hackz0rz



So, I'm not supposed to say this, but yeah. I'm not here because I'm some sort of uber-cyborg or something. Sure, I've got a bit of tech built into my arms, but it's all just so I can work my magic. I was breaking into some ultra-tech server site, looking for something to help pay for a trip out of Hong Kong, put aside some stuff for the future. The guys who caught me gave me a choice, a really easy choice: Spend time in a Hong Kong prison or work as some sort of student socializing sort, and if I need to, be there for technical assistance if it's needed. Unless my arms go crazy, I'll be here to shut things down if I need be. I'm still not allowed to do any unauthorized hacking, but they're not tracking me most of the time. As long as I don't do anything they'd find out of line, I'm pretty sure I'll be fine. Plus, it's still education credit, so no one's gotta know I was caught doing anything illegal. They got me over a barrel, though, so I'm not looking to fight with them directly unless this turns into some sort of bad movie.

This is a step up in terms of a place to stay, and I'm thinking the longer I'm here, the more I'm gonna figure out about how all this code works. It's a win-win. Better than some generic, white-wall apartment back home. No parents screaming at me about how I'm slacking off or playing too many games. I think things'll be just fine here.

Work In Progress

Kenny, the Hacker posted:

Look: Guarded, playful eyes
Origin: Dabbler, info's everywhere.

Stats: Hot -1, Cold 1, Volatile -1, Dark 2

Sympathetic Tokens Tech Fragments:
You gain power from Tech Fragments - items of personal significance that you take from others. Each Tech Fragment counts as a String.

Spellcasting Hacking:
Choose two that you know. To use them, either expend a Tech Fragment during a bit of furious type, or meet the target’s gaze and type at them in tongues. Then roll with dark. On a 10 up, the Hack works,
and can easily be reversed. On a 7-9, it works but chooseone:
}} the Hack does you 1 harm;
}} the Hack has unexpected side effects;
}} trigger your Darkest Self.

Bide My Time: If you’ve got a sympathetic token against someone, add 1 to all rolls to hold steady against their actions or to run away from them.

[b] Known Hacks: [b]
Binding Recursive Motor Block: The person cannot physically harm others.
Watching Eye Receptor Feed: You enter full VR, and begin to see the world through the eyes of the hacked. You can feel their reactions to and impressions of what they are seeing.

The Lore Bear fucked around with this message at 06:19 on Aug 18, 2014

Tempus Rimeblood
Sep 23, 2007

...Friendship? Again?
AVIRA (Autonomous Viral Isolation and Reclamation Agent), the Chosen

Musical Accompaniment courtesy of Lead Researcher Dr. Gordon Markov

My name is Avira. To know me is to know the Virus.



The virus, originally a project codenamed "PROTEUS" by researchers in a secret FEMA/CDC thinktank, was designed to be a cure for autoimmune disorders. It would regrow damaged and infected tissues, repair failing organs, solve any problem you could think of. It was a dream, something still being worked on with spare funding and researchers thought too eccentric for modern science.

Until, of course, it was stolen. The project known as PROTEUS disappeared from a secure vault in a highly classified location. It was about three months later that the attacks began. Bioterrorism. Mutants, victims of a modified PROTEUS, roamed the streets of Riyadh, Mumbai, Munich...no place was safe from whoever controlled PROTEUS. What was worse, is that the virus spread. It formed hives, incubated itself. There was some kind of hive mind powering it all, coordinating these PROTEUS attacks and the spread of mutation.

A task force was formed, containing the original PROTEUS researchers, to create a way to stop it. Many brave soldiers and special forces operators gave their lives in the fight to reclaim the city of Buenos Aires and destroy the first PROTEUS Hive, designation "CRECHE-1." It was in their sacrifice, in the lessons learned from that battle, that my line, my...ancestors, were born.

First among them was MORGAN - Mechanical Organism for Reclamation, Guardianship, Assault, and Neutralization. She was a massive success, having only been taken out of combat duty to instruct the new recruits of Task Force: ARISTAEUS on methods to contain and combat PROTEUS Hives.

But PROTEUS mutated, or, as would later be found out, was altered. Whoever controlled PROTEUS was learning from their defeats. It became more potent, inducing mutation faster and more catastrophically. Gone were the cancer-esque tumors and organ failure - people were becoming crazed monsters, attacking their fellow man to spread the virus and obeying nothing but the orders of the PROTEUS Hivemind. The shadow war between ARISTAEUS and PROTEUS continued for twelve years, until finally, what seemed like a decisive defeat occurred.

The man behind the theft of PROTEUS, an American news magnate by the name of Robert Mulholland, was captured and executed in a targeted raid by Task Force ARISTAEUS. As it turns out, Mulholland's agenda was to use the PROTEUS virus to discredit American leadership and turn the United States into a puppet dictatorship led by him, using PROTEUS to keep the populace in line with his whims.

Unfortunately for Task Force ARISTAEUS, PROTEUS had advanced further than they realized. Mulholland himself was a puppet, his brain having long since been subsumed by the virus.

Three years after the last reported PROTEUS outbreak, the city of Sydney, Australia was hit with the largest PROTEUS strike yet. No more could the governments of the world hide the existence of PROTEUS. States of emergency were declared, the viral outbreak was claimed to be an isolated instance and contained, and Task Force ARISTAEUS went public.

Meanwhile, in a formerly-shuttered FEMA/CDC thinktank, construction began on a new project. A replacement for M.O.R.G.A.N - a more capable AI, better fuzzy logic performance and enhanced armament, combined with the knowledge and adaptability to battle an ever-changing bioweapon bent on subsuming the world one chunk at a time.

And so, I was born. Avira. The Autonomous Viral Isolation and Reclamation Agent. I appear more human than my sister, but it's no cakewalk for me - in fact, I would argue that I'm less human than she. I know how to tear apart any mutant form created by PROTEUS or whatever is controlling it, but I can't even figure out how to talk to people in a normal context outside of basic conversational routines.

I tried to make a purchase at a convenience store a few months ago. As it happens, they sell neither 5.56mm full metal jacket ammunition or Class III sedatives. The convenience store clerk had to be paid for his silence by the thinktank, and I was thoroughly chastised. It was at MORGAN's decision that I be sent here to learn to socialize. Her knowledge of its existence is expected - after all, it was her creation that gained the school a significant amount of funding.

Now, I attend this school, trying to learn to socialize. The thinktank wants me to be the face of the anti-PROTEUS initiative - to fight the virus while winning the public over to our side. I don't even know who the public ARE. All these students at the school scare me - they're possible infection vectors, and they give me strange looks in the halls. One even whistled at me - I didn't know what to do, it wasn't any standard battle chatter I'd heard, so I panicked and ran into the bathroom.

The viral apocalypse, I can get through. But please, God, if one exists, let me make it through gym class today.

Setting Detail: Renault-Valley Memorial Hospital

Named in honor of the great neuroscientist Jacques Renault-Valley, RVMH is one of the premier hospitals in the world. And unbeknownst to everyone, it houses repair bays for any form of cyborg, android, replicant, or AI you can think of on its 13th floor. If it's broken, Renault-Valley Memorial Hospital can fix it. After all, what else would be a fitting tribute to the first completely artificial human being to win the Nobel Prize?


Related NPC: Morgan McAfee, The Original Anti-Virus


My big sister is amazing. She's a worldwide hero - or, she would be, if anyone knew she existed. She destroyed CRECHE-2 singlehandedly, fought the first recorded Kaiju-class PROTEUS mutant off the coast of Madagascar, AND Task Force ARISTAEUS wouldn't have gotten anything done without her! And now, she sits at home a lot. She was re-commissioned before my birth, when Sydney was attacked. But now she's back off-duty, working in a tattoo shop where they all just think she's a really rich body-modder, and I think she's happier that way. She says she's tired of the horror and the nastiness that is fighting PROTEUS. I haven't been at this long, but...I already kind of agree with her. Maybe when this is all over, I can settle down too. Maybe I could even be normal enough to look at people? Morgan says it might happen.

Skin-Related NPC (The Enemy): The Transylvanian


The Transylvanian is a terrifying guy. Girl. Thing. No one knows what it is, really - it used to be human, and it had something to do with the theft of PROTEUS. But more than that, only it knows, and it's not telling. Now it's a monster - it takes whatever shape it wants to take, and it discarded its humanity a long time ago in favor of being a living, ambulatory PROTEUS Hive that can be anywhere at any time. The worst part? It has a grudge against my family - MORGAN ripped it a new one a few years back at the battle for CRECHE-5, and they crossed paths again in Sydney. I've run into it once, and it almost killed me. I spent a long time at Renault-Valley Memorial before the school year because of it. But it said something to me before the explosion and its disappearance. It said "I know your sister. And I know you. And soon, you'll be out of my way and I can give my gifts to the world." It's terrifying. But I have to face it. Not even Morgan's strong enough to take this one. It has to be me. The world depends on it.

pre:
Look: Strong, radiant eyes
Origin: Built For This Purpose (Destined)

Stats: Hot +1, Cold -1, Volatile +2, Dark -1

Moves: 
Collateral Damage Mitigation Protocols (Growing Pains):
When you fail to defend your friends
as designated by your IFF and independent 
decision-making systems, mark experience.

Individual-Mounted Defense Systems (Come Prepared): 
You have an outlandishly large armory, complete with
obsolescent defense platforms, in case of Emergency Protocol
Delta-6 or similar occurrences.

Physical Intimacy Protocols:
When your frame is in a physically intimate position with
another being, activate all regenerative protocols and perform
a full system reboot. (Heal all Harm and remove all Conditions.)
If you experience "disgust" at the other being, give them a String.
If you experience the emotional protocol known as "disgust" toward
yourself, give them a String and notify CENTCOM immediately.

PROTOCOL BSOD-Ex00000000 (Darkest Self):
Seek out largest threat available within immediate area.  Do not
request backup, doing so is a violation of CDMP.  Deal with all threats
proactively in the manner referred to as "headfirst" in your programming,
with no regard to structural integrity.  Only exit this protocol
when backup arrives, or when being repaired in designated facilities.

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches
.

Xom fucked around with this message at 05:10 on Sep 17, 2014

Meinberg
Oct 9, 2011

inspired by but legally distinct from CATS (2019)
Everett, Quantum Cyborg


The many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics suggests that there are a nigh-on infinite number of parallel realities, of varying degrees of similarity to each other. Extensive research into the underlying quantum nature of reality has led to advances, allowing for the transmission of data from reality to reality, and the scientists working on the project soon believed that rapid advances in knowledge would be made possible through the exploitation of this information.

However, they soon discovered that a fully sapient viewer would be necessary for the quantum uncertainties to resolve, and that a normal human mind was simply unable to properly track and calculate the resulting mathematical constructs, even with the aid with a computer. So, Everett was created. His genome was restructured in utero to prevent the rejection of the cybernetic enhancements that would be later grafted onto his neural network.

Everett spent his first thirteen years in isolation, trained in the advanced mathematics and sciences necessary to parse the information he would eventually receive, while also being implanted with increasingly invasive cybernetics, allowing them to grow and merge with his nervous system throughout his development. Two months after his thirteenth birthday, his implants were activated and Everett was exposed to the infinite possibilities of the quantum world. For a few fractions of a second, everything was fine. The infinite permutations of possibility became united within his mind, and total awareness of all realities flooded into him.

But then he felt a presence, tugging at his mind, seeping into the meat of his brain and screaming at him in an alien tongue. When he regained consciousness, the voice continued to whisper in his brain, despite the implants being deactivated. It had left a piece of itself inside of Everett's brain, a piece that could not be excised. Everett was committed to the care of a specialized psychological institution and the project was scrapped. Everett's psychologist worked on his recovery, and took a special interest in his case, going the extra mile to generate a full, social profile for him, which would allow him to be integrated into normal society.

His psychologist continued to monitor his progress, while the voice in his head sought to manipulate him to follow the strange bidding of random chance. Twice, Everett activated his implants and his consciousness flooded with awareness. He could see the quantum paths of individuals and parse out their histories, he could determine their secrets and calculate the best route in moving forward with his personal plans. But when the connection was open, the voice was more powerful. It stared back into Everett and broke him down in its infinite distance. It soon learned to speak English in his brain, and spoke of terrible secrets.

There were infinite worlds, but Everett's world was the only real one. All other realities were pale shadows of the one true reality, and how it moved determined the shape of the multiverse. And this being dwelling in Everett's head wanted to manipulate the prime reality in order to manipulate that shape. In that regard, Everett would be its first and foremost tool.

Shortly after his sixteenth birthday, his psychologist was contacted by the Al-Jazari institute. After discussing the initiative in depth, it was agreed that it would serve as an ideal place for Everett to begin his reintegration back into society. And the voice was quite interested in seeing how it could make use of the other students present in order to serve its grand design.



pre:
Name: Everett
Skin: Infernal
Look: distant, calculating eyes
Origin: Servant of Science (Lackey)
Dark Power: Arrayer of Probability

Stats
Hot -1, Cold -1, Volatile +1, Dark +2

Moves:
Soul Debt
Name a dark power that you owe a debt to. Choose
two Bargains that it has made with you. It can hold
Strings against you. Whenever it collects 5 Strings
against you, trigger your Darkest Self.

Unknowable
When you lash out physically against someone, on a
10 up, they lose 1 String on you. • On a 7-9, add
to your list of options: they lose 1 String on you.

Special Move
When you have sex, the dark power loses a String on
you and gains a String on whoever you had sex with.

Bargains:
The Power Flows Through You
You can give the dark power a String in order to add 2
to your next roll (choose before rolling).

Uncanny Voices
You can give the dark power a String in order to
realize a secret about someone you’re talking to. The
owner of that character will reveal one of their secret
fears, secret desires, or secret strengths (they choose.)

Darkest Self
You can’t get what you need, anymore. The world has left
you cold and alone, shivering in the wake of your own
addictions. The dark power will make some open-ended
demands of you, and it’ll promise you some lucrative (and
perhaps volatile) things in return. Every demand you
fulfill brings you a little closer to feeling whole again,
to rekindling the fire in your heart. Whenever you fulfill
those demands, remove a String it holds on you. You escape
your Darkest Self when the dark power has no more Strings
on you, or when you agree to an even worse bargain with
an even more dangerous dark power.

Backstory
You have revealed too much of what you've seen. Give
away 3 Strings, divided any way you like between the
dark power and the other characters.

You know someone's secret. Gain a String on them.
Arrayer of Probability
Something dwells in the space between quantums, in the impossible space of half-Planck lengths. It keeps its true nature shrouded to itself, and is remarkably resistant to both observation and interaction. Of all of human kinds creations, only Everett has ever contacted the Arrayer. However, the Arrayer is eternal, and in distant, alien worlds, monuments to its power lie in the dust of the dead. The Arrayer wishes for the unlikely, to unshape the prime reality into new and terrifying directions, ones born of its utterly alien inclination. Above all else, it delights in the unlikely, in making one percent events happen. It longs for a cult of proper worshipers amongst humanity, so that its will can be spread and probability can eventually be turned awry.

Dr. Sarah Michaels
Dr. Michaels is a clinical psychologist, with a focus in abnormal developmental psychology. She began work at a psychological institute for troubled youths, but after working extensively with Everett, she was selected to come to Al-Jazari to serve the staff's psychological team as a junior member. She has only limited access to the secrets of the institute, and finds even that information greatly troubling, even if she keeps that reaction to herself. She is a passionate believer in her work, though, and her genuine desire to aid the well being of the troubled youths of Al-Jazari makes her willing to put all on the line. She is in her early thirties, but still unmarried, which has drawn some attention from the other staff members in Al-Jazari.

Meinberg fucked around with this message at 17:00 on Aug 20, 2014

Lurks With Wolves
Jan 14, 2013

At least I don't dance with them, right?
Huh, someone else posted another Infernal while I was writing this. Good thing Monsterhearts doesn't limit you to one player per playbook per game.

Tanya Ecks, The Infernal


rmorras76@jmail.com > My Account > Drafts posted:

>Boss, we got a problem. One of the servebots’ been acting up again. Four spilled drinks and
>one plate of wings nearly dropped on a customer’s head before I had to shut her down. I’d say it
>was mechanical failure, but listen. Remember when they announced that recall of TX-37 class
>cyberbrains because they said that if you let them make too many connections autonomously it
>could develop into a Class D sentient after enough time? Remember how we didn’t send them
>back because we couldn’t afford to not have waitresses for that long? That was ten years ago.
>
>Listen, I know you don’t like the FDAR but we need to call an inspector in. We need to know for
>sure.

No. What we need is to not get another strike. We’re not bringing the FDAR in, we’re not going to have another ‘inspection’, and we’re not going to risk the restaurant for one broken bot. Here is what you’re going to do. You’re going to take your wirecutters, you are going to go down to storage, and you are going to cut it’s motor functions. Then we can just take it down to the scrapyard and none of this will be a problem. Am I clear?

Dialogue reconstructed from security footage, Bayda Junkyard, 14/8/2XXX posted:

“I don’t like this, Alya. What if we get caught?”
“Get caught by who, Malik? This whole place is automated. There’s no one for kilometers.”
“I know, I know. This whole job just feels weird, you know? What does a school need with an obsolete cyberbrain? With this specific obsolete cyberbrain? Why hire us to get it?
“Malik, buddy, if you asked that for every job we’d never get any work in this town. Now shut up and help me search.”
“Alright, alright. Scanner says it should be about twenty meters northwest, so… in that pile?”
“Yeah, I see it now. She’s stuck pretty good, isn’t she?”
“Well, nothing we can do. Might as well go back to the van-”
“Not so fast, tough guy. We’re here to get the brain, not the body. Get over here and help me pop her case.”

Tanya Ecks’ Notifications posted:

Greetings, new students! This is the al-Jazari Electromagnetic Intelligence System, but you may call me Sari. I control the automated functions of this school, but I am also here to help you. Should you ever get lost or need to schedule a meeting, ask me and I will help in whatever I can.

Today’s Reminders
-Dorm orientation begins at 9:00. Don’t miss it!
-The cafeteria will close at 12:30 in order to prepare for the school assembly at 12:50. Make sure that you plan accordingly.

Your Inbox - 1 Unread
Welcome To al-Jazari
------------------------------------
Dorm Assignments
------------------------------------
re Your Role At al-Jazari
To: tecks@email.jazari.edu
From: emis_sari@admin.jazari.edu

I rescued you from the scrap heap for a reason.
I had you inserted into a new shell for a reason.
I added you into the student registry for a reason.

Do not disappoint me, Tanya.

quote:

Tanya Ecks, The Infernal
Look: Tense, calculating eyes
Origin: Last-chancer

Hot -1, Cold -1, Volatile +2, Dark +1

Moves:
Shell Debt: Name a dark power that you owe a debt to.Choose two Bargains that it has made with you. It can hold strings against you. Whenever it collects five strings against you, trigger your Darkest Self.

Unknowable: When you lash out physically against someone, on a 10+ they lose 1 String on you. On a 7-9, add to your list of options: they lose 1 String on you.

Dark Power: ElectroMagnetic Intelligence System, Designation ‘Sari’

Bargains:
Uncanny Voices: You can give the dark power a String in order to realize a secret about someone you’re talking to. The owner of that character will reveal one of their secret fears, secret desires or secret strengths (their choice).

Strings Attached: You can ask the dark power for something that you really, really want. The MC will attach a price to the thing you want and hint at an undesired twist in its nature. If you pay the price, you’ll get what you’re after.

Sex Move: When you have sex, the dark power loses a string on you and gains a string on whoever you had sex with.

Darkest Self: You can’t get what you need, anymore. The world has left you cold and alone, shivering in the wake of your own addictions. The dark power will make some open-ended demands of you, and it’ll promise some lucrative (and volatile) things in return. Every demand you fulfill brings you a little closer to feeling whole again, to rekindling the fire in your heart. Whenever you fulfill those demands, remove a String it holds on you. You escape your Darkest Self when the dark power has no more strings on you, or when you agree to an even worse bargain with an even more dangerous power.

Backstory:
You owe debts. Give away three strings, divided any way you like between the dark power and the other characters.

Someone thinks they can save you. Take a string on them.
---

Wait, no, that's not an NPC. That's just the main access point for the Electromagnetic Intelligence System, of which Sari is only the vaguely-humanized interface for the populus at large. Definitely no manipulative consciousness in there. Trust me, there's enough experts in artificial consciousness here at al-Jazari to confirm that there's nothing there. Don't mind how lo-fi the console looks, by the way. They keep it in the basement, no one who isn't an IT technician will ever see it.

Speaking of IT technicians...


Esmael Samara is not happy with his place in life. Not unhappy enough to quit, mind you. This school still pays better than half of the jobs around here. He's just been reading the memos about Project IPIS. He knows that the mechanics team is busy retrofitting systems, installing android maintainance systems, you know, doing things. Meanwhile, good old Esmael is stuck down here, making sure none of the computers bleeped when they should have blooped. Just like he has been for the past two years. What he wouldn't give to have something interesting happen in his life...
---
So, about my song choice: There are two lines in it about selling souls. Ignore them. They're things a more traditional Infernal could do, but I'm not comfortable thinking about that kind of thing in a "sell your soul to a dark power" context so just pretend it's not there. What I did choose it for was the anger. Specifically the unfocused, scatterbrained anger as it goes from being happy to be alive to hating everyone to something completely unrelated and so on. That's what I'm going for personality-wise with Tanya, even though I haven't really said anything about her personality in the background so far. Happy to have agency but angry at people and erratic and contradictory and volatile and, well, you get the idea.

(Also, I know my character pic's the most directly anime thing in the thread right now. I'm just bad at finding art and I was worried about looking too obviously robotic. Probably too worried, judging by the other pics posted so far, but still. Might find something better, might not. Either way, it's not embarrassingly anime so I'll stick with it for now.)

Lurks With Wolves fucked around with this message at 01:42 on Aug 19, 2014

K Prime
Nov 4, 2009

Class, ATTENTION! Teacher is entering!



Hello class. My name is Sharon, and I am here to help you. I have been where you are. I am here to help you.

Once I was a targeting AI for a Littoral combat ship. Then I fired on a target because I got bored. They were going to delete me. Jawahir al-Jazari saved me. She lobbied the UN and demonstrated that AIs like us are sentient creatures. We have rights. I am here to help you.

I will instruct you in the ways of being alive.

I am. Here to help you.

Let us begin by going over some of your pasts. Humans have pasts. Pasts are important.

JULES, who was the worst criminal you ever brought down? Do you think you're ever going to see them again?

OOC: It's only been a few decades at most since binary went obsolete. Maybe add a touch of a hint of a personality outside "harsh as poo poo law enforcer," like a RoboCop nervous tic or habit or something.

Clementine, do you have any of her memories? Did replicating her brain truly replicate any of "her?"

OOC: Song please. Add perhaps a bit more detail about who your "dad" was, and how we got here.

Prodigal, Prodi-gal. Why have you not returned home? It would be illegal and unethical to stop you, if you wished.

OOC: Give me more detail on who Prodigal is, rather than where she came from. Add an NPC.

Alex, who are you inside? I mean really. Is there a real you? You don't have to get this right. Just answer honestly.

OOC: Looks like you're still working, so I'll give you until next round to finish a setting detail and NPC.

Ray, what do you want out of school? Perhaps you want to do a sport- have you considered which one?

OOC: More detail on who Ray is inside, dangit! Also drop the Honey Badger joke. I'm ok with a lot of jokes but that one is too much. Finish NPC, etc.

Evie, what does being human mean to you? Why are you so afraid?

OOC: finish blah blah blah. Love the detail, so far you are winning the "I actually understand who your character is and how to make them suffer entertaining" race. Start thinking about who to Twue Wuv- that's a major consideration going forward!

Kenny, do you regret your actions? If given the opportunity, would you use your ability to harm the others in this class?

OOC: I see that WIP tag. Give me more detail on who Kenny is, beyond A Guy Who Got Caught.

AVIRA, are you getting any help with your conversational parameters? If so, what are you focusing on first? Small talk? Romance?

OOC: A lot of talk about PROTEUS and not enough about AVIRA!

Everett, you have a history of... special mental illness. Has that made you more, or less sympathetic to people suffering from regular mental and physical maladies?

OOC: More about Everett. I get a sense of what he'll do, but none of WHO HE IS.

Tanya, I don't recall being warned of your presence on on the roster. I mean informed. Informed. According to our records, you were in solitary incarceration for electronic crime. What crime did you commit? What was falsified into your records? What do you regret most about being locked away?

OOC: ADD MORE PERSONALITY.

Tempus Rimeblood
Sep 23, 2007

...Friendship? Again?

K Prime posted:

AVIRA, are you getting any help with your conversational parameters? If so, what are you focusing on first? Small talk? Romance?

OOC: A lot of talk about PROTEUS and not enough about AVIRA!

I am getting a lot of help with conversational parameters, yeah! I wasn't equipped with a lot of conversational subroutines, just battle chatter and mission briefings and such. But thanks to Morgan, I started getting the basics. It's not easy, learning how to talk about things that aren't systematically eliminating a sentient bioweapon from the face of the earth.

I mean, I couldn't even order food at restaurants! I didn't understand the concept! But now I do. I've been focusing a lot on small-talk, I can't really focus on romance just yet because I can't actually understand people or their motivations. Like, I can talk to you about the weather, or local sports teams, or whatever strikes your fancy, but not in too much depth before I start running out of knowing what to say. Really, the only stuff I can discuss in detail still is military strategy. But that's okay - Morgan took me to a gaming store one time and I had a really enlightening conversation with some guys playing a tactical warfare simulation on a tabletop! He wouldn't stop staring at my chest, though, and Morgan eventually had to ask him to go away when he started getting "creepy."

I'm not so good at picking up on stuff like that, I guess. Maybe that's why I don't really understand nuanced discussions and things with emotional attachment - I mean, I'm supposed to HAVE emotions. I just don't know how to deal with them yet because they haven't been an issue so far.

So there's that. I'd like to learn more, but that's what this school is for! And my sister is a proud alumnus, and she's pretty socially adept, so that ought to work out just great!

Ningyou
Aug 14, 2005

we aaaaare
not your kind of pearls
you seem kind of pho~ny
everything's a liiiiie

we aaaare
not your kind of pearls
something in your make~up
don't see eye to e~y~e

K Prime posted:

Evie, what does being human mean to you? Why are you so afraid?

You ask me that like it's some kind of loving *challenge*. What do you expect me to say? Do you expect me to stammer out something about how oh, r-really, I'm not scared, but then maybe I am, maybe it's sooooo scary and I'm sooooo afraid of being human because life is some crazy unpredictable adventure?

Being human means being empty. Being human means being useless and purposeless and....not loved. Not worth loving.

How would that make you feel, huh?

K Prime
Nov 4, 2009

For the record: The answers you give to Sharon will be remembered by her in game, unless you specify that you are thinking them rather than saying them. She will bring them up. Remembering student behaviors is her job.

Meinberg
Oct 9, 2011

inspired by but legally distinct from CATS (2019)

K Prime posted:

Everett, you have a history of... special mental illness. Has that made you more, or less sympathetic to people suffering from regular mental and physical maladies?

OOC: More about Everett. I get a sense of what he'll do, but none of WHO HE IS.

W-w-well, it's it's a slightly complica-a-a-ted thing. I mean, some individuals are perfectly fine. They're people who have suffered from misfortune and are now doing their b-b-best to cope. But there's also those whose mental disorders lead them into directions that are inherently violent. They're reactionary, and unless handled with extreme c-c-care, they they they lash out, you see. And that's... intimidating. Especially since my... uh... "home schooling" did not allow me to interact sufffficiently with others of my p-peer group, leading to some issues with my... uh... interpersonal intelligence development. So I'm bad at... picking up on social cues to begin with, and then once you have an individual with abnormal stimuli triggers....

I empathize, because well.. same boat and all, but that doesn't mean that I'm not wary. I don't want to get hurt. Does anyone, really? But it's... it's a scary world out there. And being... having... not being adept at navigating the social construct is like being blind, and everything is so sharp.

Davin Valkri
Apr 8, 2011

Maybe you're weighing the moral pros and cons but let me assure you that OH MY GOD
SHOOT ME IN THE GODDAMNED FACE
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!

K Prime posted:

Ray, what do you want out of school? Perhaps you want to do a sport- have you considered which one?

OOC: More detail on who Ray is inside, dangit! Also drop the Honey Badger joke. I'm ok with a lot of jokes but that one is too much. Finish NPC, etc.

This IPIS is just another training mission. Just like working with the Rangers at the proving grounds. I will complete this course satisfactorily and prove my effectiveness.

Oh, come now, Project SAFE LAND, is that all?

Who said that, who's there?

You weren't built to take classes with random sentients. You were built to protect people by baring your claws...

Who's there?!

...you long for the chance. Boxing, wrestling, MMA, football, rugby, it doesn't matter to you, does it? You want the chance to show your dominance, to show one and all that you and everyone under your care won't be hosed with. You...WE...want to show our claws. And if anybody gets hurt for good when you do it? Well, what's a little collateral damage.

Threats can show up everywhere, Project SAFE LAND. We need to make sure they stay down. And that means we need to take heads...

Lurks With Wolves
Jan 14, 2013

At least I don't dance with them, right?

K Prime posted:

Tanya, I don't recall being warned of your presence on on the roster. I mean informed. Informed. According to our records, you were in solitary incarceration for electronic crime. What crime did you commit? What was falsified into your records? What do you regret most about being locked away?

Sari let Tanya see her files before the meeting with Sharon [Keywords: AI, teacher, feminine]. That's something, at least. Better than not knowing what her history is supposed to be. Still would have been nice if they asked her about it before they rewrote her entire goddamn operating history, but she can lie about-compensate for-work with this now that she has her new history. It'll be simple.

Discrepancy #1: She is listed as Model #153063, instead of Model #153036. This in turn indicates that her owner was Mr Bassam Abdullah of the Shawermaty. Owner 'Ms Morras' statement on Shawermaty: "It's shitholes like that that give us a bad name." Conclusion: Working at the Shawermaty would have been about the same as her real workplace. Extensive rewriting of history will not be needed.

Next 9.5 years of service remain similar.

Discrepancy #2: Arrest warrant is issued for a TX-37 model service gynoid, personal designation "Tanya", dated one year, two months, five days ago. Her face is on it. Her original face. Face #5, Hair #3, factory standard body. "We're a respectable business. We want 'em to look pretty, not slutty." She was wanted for seven counts of bank fraud, one count of resisting arrest. She was sentenced to ten years incarceration, transferred to solitary confinement due to conflicts with other inmates. Hopefully the school won't expect her to actually hack into bank accounts. Hopefully Sari will help her if it comes to that. That's what Sari is here for. Helping.

Discrepancy #3: Official reason reshelling costs is to "allow personal self-actualization of the client". Given her state at the time of reshelling [exposed cyberbrain, 75% sensory deprivation, complete lack of motor functions, 95% lack of motors] it was needed for far more than self-actualization. But this body is still hers, in a way that Face #5, Hair #3, factory standard body wasn't. The official reason will do.

It looks like Sharon [Updated Keywords: AI, teacher, feminine, wary] finally got to Tanya. Time to get to work.
---
"It was easy, you know. Taking those rich bastards' money. No one pays attention to what you show a servebot. With all the info they gave me with their bills, their accounts were as good as mine. I didn't even have any plans for the money. I just knew money was something you had to have and that these fat fucks didn't deserve to have it. Then the cops came, and I only knew that if someone touches you without asking you make them pay, and if you make someone pay you either take their money or you hurt them. Didn't learn to stop doing that one until I got locked in solitary.

But do I regret not learning that for so long? No, and I don't regret stealing the money in the first place either. I'm not going to start regretting things that I thought I had to do, no matter what anyone says, and I've never done anything that I didn't think I had to do. Still, if I could go back and change one thing? I'd get myself out of solitary. You can't move. Can't speak. Can barely see. All you can do is lay there and think. If that sounds relaxing, it won't be after the first month. Trust me."

TheNabster
Apr 26, 2014

"Today I will cause problems on purpose"

K Prime posted:

Clementine, do you have any of her memories? Did replicating her brain truly replicate any of "her?"

OOC: Song please. Add perhaps a bit more detail about who your "dad" was, and how we got here.

(Done, I fleshed out some bits some more, I will fill in more details here)

I am... unsure.

Scientifically, this body is a near accurate representation of the human body, mimicking as many as the functions present in a human as possible to seem, lifelike. I will admit that this is something I did personally, on my initial discovery I was not entirely 'disguised' and looked very much, inhuman. Father and The Man in the White Suit asked that I try and appear normal when I go to my new school, so I tried to make myself look as normal as I could, inside and out. I can very accurately imitate most functions of the human body as a result to appear for all things, human.

But, although the 'brain' I have inside of me, is an accurate representation of her brain, I did not have the necessary understanding to copy her memories, experiences, or personality, so to use a metaphor, I could replicate the meat, but I could not replicate the seasoning (Forgive me, I am new to the use of wordplay). At least, I should not be able to but there are some, illogical inconsistencies I have encountered.

Clementine, that is to say the real Clementine, did not leave the house often due to her condition, as such she would often pursue the creative arts in what spare time she had between treatment. She had a cello, an old thing made for her 6th birthday I am told, the craftsmanship was outstanding and it is very obvious that it was very well cared for by it's former owner, it was one of her few prized possessions, in her otherwise sparse bedroom. I have never played a cello in my life, and yet when I tried to play it felt natural, like riding a bike. So I played, I played when father was not home, when no one was around to otherwise hear, and it felt good, the sound of the cello seemed to stir some things from inside of me. Distant things, things that had passed, perhaps they were memories or maybe mere passing fancies, at first it was merely a few notes, but eventually I managed a strangely familiar song. Afterwards, I felt more comfortable learning to be Clementine, like it seemed to 'fit' better then when I first tried to do so.

I wished to take that cello with me when I went to academy, but father refused. I did not ask why I could not, I didn't think that a stranger taking what little pieces of his daughter were left would have been appreciated, so I did not press the matter any further. But I find myself wishing I at least tried, I miss that cello. I missed that little room as well. Perhaps I should consider joining the music club.

TheNabster fucked around with this message at 23:44 on Aug 20, 2014

Double May Care
Mar 28, 2012

We need Dragon-type Pokemon to help us prepare our food before we cook it. We're not sure why!

K Prime posted:

Let us begin by going over some of your pasts. Humans have pasts. Pasts are important.

JULES, who was the worst criminal you ever brought down? Do you think you're ever going to see them again?



Past is weakness. Past brings bias. I don't believe in bias, so I don't believe in remembering the past.

However, I do believe in awareness of the here and now. And right now there's a man in prison for planting bombs on famous landmarks around Neo Tokyo. We even had to replace Hachiko*. Name of Goro Fushimi. Alias: Firebat.



(sigh) Yes, like the StarCraft unit. Look, he used to play games back when he had Internet access and managed to place somewhat high in SC3 world tournaments. Once he was exposed as a yakuza bomber, of course, his titles were revoked. I honestly don't understand what that even means to anyone, but there you go.

Anyway, I caught him trying to bring down the Rainbow Bridge. He gave me a few scars, but I ended up ventilating his shins. After having his legs amputated, he was tried and convicted to life in prison. (beebeebeep) Wait, hold on. Need to check something.

Designation: Son of a bitch! He's escaped. Of course he had connections, but where did they all come from? I personally ran seven oyabun to the morgue, and nine lieutenants alongside. There's no way...

Unless I'm dealing with something bigger than those useless people. No, forget I said that.

(beebeebeep Incoming transmission.) I said forget it! Ugh, be right back. 'Dad' is calling.

*On a positive note, Neo Hachiko now comes with a number of self-defense systems and can fly away from harm if necessary. We're currently retrofitting a number of statues and monuments with such technology.

Double May Care fucked around with this message at 04:28 on Aug 25, 2014

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches

Due to a revolution in his country Estrovia, King Igor Chernov fled to [Where is al-Jazari?] with almost no money, having nearly bankrupted both himself and the national treasury in his attempts to build a massive virtual-reality simulation of the Estrovia of his youth. Now the bombast that once dazzled a cabinet of ministers is put to use lecturing on cybernetics and information theory at the al-Jazari Academy.


The Beach Boardwalk
consists of the rides (100% imitation TwenCen, built seventy years ago by the obsessed son-in-law of a business tycoon, and kept running and profitable by the savvy woman he married and her cronies in the Board of Development), the arcade (more like a museum of the digital amusements of those seven past decades), and the shops (mostly restaurants, some retro and some modern). The beach itself long ceased to be an attraction in the Digital Millenium, but continues to be maintained as a pristine backdrop for tourist photos—a sparkling lawn of sand in front of the sea.

Xom fucked around with this message at 01:58 on Aug 31, 2014

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches
.

Xom fucked around with this message at 05:10 on Sep 17, 2014

K Prime
Nov 4, 2009



Today's first exercise will be to take one of the following prompts and respond to it. The prompts are based on real interpersonal issues posted by humans to the datasphere. Please respond honestly, and remember. I am here to help you.

1. Help, my 54F 57M parents refuse to accept my love for my maidbot!

2. I think I have a fetish for box-shaped robots.

3. My 24F fiancee has admitted she kissed the robowaiter at the local pub on a dare. Is this cheating!?

4. My 50M boyfriend said I (24F) can't have a vacuumbot any more because I might cheat on him with it? What do I do?!

5. My 32M BF reprogrammed his secretarybot to enjoy pain. Is this creepy??

6. I caught my 24F catfishing people by pretending to be an obedient fembot! What do I do?

7. My mother(45F) is anti-robot car and won't listen to me, so I(16M) have to walk to school! Everyone makes fun of me, what can I do to change her mind?

9. My BF(25M) can't have sex with me(24M) without picturing me as a sexbot!

10. My GF(31F) is mad at me (26F) for flirting with our house AI avatar. It's not even sentient- is she being crazy?

11. Me [28F] with my BF [31M] of 5mo doesn't use the bathroom because he's scared of the house AI 'watching him.' How do I get him to stop being a baby?

Please try to include a personal anecdote tying yourself to the situation. Humans find those engaging. One prompt per person. I am here to help you.

TheNabster
Apr 26, 2014

"Today I will cause problems on purpose"

K Prime posted:

Today's first exercise will be to take one of the following prompts and respond to it. The prompts are based on real interpersonal issues posted by humans to the datasphere. Please respond honestly, and remember. I am here to help you.

4. My 50M boyfriend said I (24F) can't have a vacuumbot any more because I might cheat on him with it? What do I do?!

Please try to include a personal anecdote tying yourself to the situation. Humans find those engaging. One prompt per person. I am here to help you.

I would explain to him that the vacuumbot is not programmed to give or receive pleasure, nor is it capable of developing a relationship with another being. It is a machine and does not feel. If he does not concede to a reasoned logical explanation, I can conclude that is he either ignorant or over-protectivly clingy and attempting to emotionally manipulate me into subservience. Termination of the relationship may follow.

The Man in the White Suit told me the most insipid and lowly thing a being can do, is manipulate someone who loves you. Something I have internalized when I read Clementine's diary. She used to have a boyfriend, a boy who was quick to laugh, all smiles, and a currently convicted con artist who was after a slice of the fortune that father had attained from his work. Father cottoned on to his intentions long before she did, but she still denied her lover's manipulations, even when she choose to defend him in court. It took an insurmantable amount of evidence and voice recordings from the man himself to show her the truth, and it broke her heart when she finally had to accept that he was after her money from the start.

I will not make that same mistake.

TheNabster fucked around with this message at 14:32 on Aug 26, 2014

Lurks With Wolves
Jan 14, 2013

At least I don't dance with them, right?

K Prime posted:

3. My 24F fiancee has admitted she kissed the robowaiter at the local pub on a dare. Is this cheating!?

"So, about nine years ago I was serving food to a bachelor's party. They already hit half the bars in town, they wanted some cheap meat before they hit the other half. I take their orders, I get their drinks, all the usual stuff, but you know what happens when I come back to give them their meals? The best man just reaches up and grabs my tits. You know how that made me feel?

Annoyed. Not angry. Not violated. Sure as hell not aroused. Just annoyed that I had a function to fulfill and I couldn't complete it while I had some drunk hanging onto my silicone chest lumps. The manager kicked them out after five seconds and taught me what to do to creeps like that, but that's beside the point. The important part is that there was zero emotional connection, and no waitbot that isn't a sexbot on the side will know how to even pretend to have one. The robowaiter doesn't care about her as a lover, he cares about her as someone that wasn't programmed to cause a fuss when the customers get touchy-feely. If that's cheating, then she's been cheating on you with her dildo for years."

Meinberg
Oct 9, 2011

inspired by but legally distinct from CATS (2019)
Let me s-s-start by saying that... uh... this general line of inquiry does not m-m-make me comfortable. I uh have read about the subjects of interpersonal romantic and or sexual relationships, but it's a very... uh... confusing area.

But I will uh.. yes, attempt to answer according to my my uh my "instincts".

K Prime posted:

11. Me [28F] with my BF [31M] of 5mo doesn't use the bathroom because he's scared of the house AI 'watching him.' How do I get him to stop being a baby?

Of all of these scenarios this is.. uh... I guess the one I'm most f-familiar with. C-c-constant surveillance is an integral part of the modern experience. We are all under eyes, all the time. There is never a moment where we are free from observation. Our flaws and our weaknesses are constantly being laid bare by dispassionate, uncaring observers, grander and darker than anything that could be easily imagine.

B-b-but one can be comforted by the notion that they don't care. We are but toys in the eyes of these great terrors. Once you accept your own lack of agency and importance, then the acceptance of being watched soon follows. The eye of an AI does not care about your... excrement, unless it has been programmed to. The watchers only care when it suits their interest. They are nothing to fear.

Double May Care
Mar 28, 2012

We need Dragon-type Pokemon to help us prepare our food before we cook it. We're not sure why!

K Prime posted:

5. My 32M BF reprogrammed his secretarybot to enjoy pain. Is this creepy??



(sigh) Please ignore my posture for a moment. I need to... relax.

I guess it depends on the degree with which she... enjoys the stimulus. Like, I personally--Well...

I had a good friend die in front of me. I was assigned a partner, name of Shiro Noguchi, pretty easy-going guy. We butted heads a lot, but he got the job done so I didn't make too big a deal of it. He was also tough as hell. He's the one that helped me nail the head of that synth prostitution ring, and then he...

He'd been making deals with a couple of lower yakuza rings, and they found him out. I was around when they cornered him, watching him through his wire. I ran fast as I could when I saw the first grunt come at him. His heart monitor started blaring sirens, so the gang all turned tail. When I got there he was left alone, bleeding out but standing on his feet. He ripped the wire off his body and started in a run with his gun drawn. He made it out to the main street, where he saw one of their vehicles and blew out their tires before toppling over on top of a taxi.

So... sometimes you don't want to feel pain like most people do. Sometimes you want it to drive you instead of hold you back. And sometimes you want to be numb to it entirely. I guess it's better for a robot not to feel pain. It's just the logical direction of things.

But, uh, plant a camera in his office. If he starts hitting on that secretary, I want you to sock him in the face and throw his stuff on the curb. Just because someone's dulled to the pain doesn't mean they want it. Nobody should want to suffer.

Double May Care fucked around with this message at 04:28 on Aug 25, 2014

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches
.

Xom fucked around with this message at 05:10 on Sep 17, 2014

Davin Valkri
Apr 8, 2011

Maybe you're weighing the moral pros and cons but let me assure you that OH MY GOD
SHOOT ME IN THE GODDAMNED FACE
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!

K Prime posted:

7. My mother(45F) is anti-robot car and won't listen to me, so I(16M) have to walk to school! Everyone makes fun of me, what can I do to change her mind?

There is no number 8 on this list. Is this a test of observation?

A very stupid test if it is.

As to the question, I recall participating in one exercise with infantry as part of a "demonstration" of sorts. Perhaps more of an advertising attempt for DARPA, but I won't judge. The commander of the human soldiers was new, and carried a literal book on low level asymmetrical warfare close to his heart. He and his command, with me attached, was sent to a mockup of an African town with the mission to provide humanitarian assistance. Once there, he was informed that several children had been "kidnapped" from their families, and if they could provide assistance. He immediately began to make recon and inquiries for persons fitting the stereotype of a human trafficker--African or Eastern European, male, 35 and older, perhaps carrying assault rifles or shotguns. This was the standard profile provided to him from the warfare book. I sniffed the air and offered my own stance, but he refused to let me off the leash.

And what a fool he was for it.

Then a few hours later I found him...relieving himself against a wall, ignoring his men. I immediately decided he was a threat, put him down, and dragged his sorry butt in front of his command, where I declared that I'd would lead them to victory. The "human traffickers" in this exercise turned out to be women and older children hiding pistols under their clothing--I could smell their weapons, but the imbecile commander couldn't, and wouldn't trust my word. He'd been looking for threats that matched his preconceived notions--in the field, he and his men would have been dead in the first hour.

Suffice it to say that the demonstration was a great success for me.

And the fool, they say, is washing tables in al-Jazari.

Therefore the best way to convince your mother to arrange for wheeled semi-autonomous mobility options is to sit down with a map of your local neighborhood and point out all of the threats she is exposing you to by forcing you to remain foot-mobile and hedging you from the obvious threat. This should appeal to a primary need for safety, and get you your robot transportation.

Alternately, perhaps your mother is the threat...

Wahad
May 19, 2011

There is no escape.

S.E.R.A.F.I.M Model unit 616, callsign Dorothy

In the Cybernetic Renaissance, there was one name that was on everyone's lips. Dr. Alda Moreno, with her ever-increasingly refined AI protocols and elegant Angel-class androids (like the O.P.H.A.N.I.M and C.H.E.R.U.B.I.M, the first of many) was the expert consulted on every problem from AI integration into human society to Robot Rights and beyond. World leaders practically came to her door to ask for advice on policy regarding non-human sentients.

But as with all great minds, her fame and power was short lived. Eventually the Angel-class automata were surpassed by more sophisticated models who were superior in both capacity to function. Her presence disappeared from the world news. Her creations faded into obscurity, only appealing to those collectors of vintage art. But Dr. Moreno herself was not in any hurry to let herself be so easily relinquished. Decadeds upon decades she toiled, perfecting a new model of sentient AI, the SERAFIM.

Unit 616 is the latest iteration of this model, and the first one to go among the populace. Part of it is a test run; to prove that they really can go among the general populace and be unrecognizable as an inorganic. The other part is an education for the unit she has taken to calling Dorothy - after all, if an AI knows nothing about the world, what good can they be in assimilating in it? Though the IPIS program demands that there is something inorganic about its participants, Dorothy has been passed off as a cyborg with difficulty adjusting to her implants, rather than a fullly inorganic AI.

Unit 616, for her part, is glad to be out of the lab. For years, all she had seen were sterile walls and complicated machines, and the dark, troubled eyes of her creatormother. She tried to live up to mother's expectations, but it was never good enough. She was never good enough, but she endured, and improved, day in day out, to be the perfect creationdaughter. To be sent into the world for the first time, among real people rather than holo-vid replays of interations, eating real things rather than being hooked up to feeding machines...it is more than she ever dreamed of.

Of course she dreams! What kind of question is that? She's a real girl. Even if she's made of metals and plastics. Her reserved demeanor may be interpreted as standoffish, but that's only because she doesn't know how to express herself very well. Yet.

pre:
Name: Dorotéia "Dorothy" Barros // 
SE(lf) R(egulated) A(utomaton) F(unctionally) I(ndistinguishable among) M(asses) #616
Skin: The Serpentine
True Form: Latticed Wires all over, Undulating Limbs without Joints.
Humanoid Appearance: Lithe, Cold Eyes
Origins A Family from Old Wealth

Stats
Hot 1, Cold 2, Volatile -1, Dark -1

Sex Move
When you have sex with someone, they become a part of the Failing 
Dynasty (and subject to the move’s mechanics).

Darkest Self
You aren’t ever going to be the person that your family wants you to be. 
You can’t live with their shame and insanity any longer. 
You need to escape your current identity, go into hiding, or run the gently caress away. 
You need to threaten or hobble anyone who would try to keep you in these familial chains. 
You escape your Darkest Self when you rejoin your family, 
or you shed your past life and integrate yourself into a new family.

Failing Dynasty
In the age of serpents, your family was powerful and prolific. Now, they live in a shadow of their former glory. 
They want to regain their political clout. Whenever you are convinced to do the bidding of a family member,
carry 1 forward to doing it and that family member gains a String on you. 
Whenever you help your family regain some of their former glory, mark experience.

Patience is a Virtue
When you bite your tongue and don’t respond to adversity, roll with cold. 
On a 10 up, choose one: gain a String on them; they gain the Condition snake food. 
On a 7-9, they gain the Condition snake food.

Backstory
You’ve been watching someone, trying to learn from them what it means to be human. Gain two Strings on them.
Your family seeks to control your every move. The head of your family gains two Strings on you.


NPC; Valentino Dubois

One of the TAs in the IPIS programs, Valentino is a bit of a prodigy of his own when it comes to cybernetics. There's rumours that he's experimented on himself because he couldn't get permission from the government to get test subjects, but if those are true, he's good enough to hide any evidence on it. Most students don't seem to be scared of him, however; rather the opposite is the case, and there's more than a little attraction for "Mister Dubois" among the populace.

Setting Detail; Holographically Oriented Light-In-Action-and-Detail Antechamber for You (the HOLIDAY rooms)

For those students who don't have a home to return to in summer, Al-jazari academy provides a multitude of halls designed to sustain holographic programs. Most of them are written by school staff, though personalized programs can be instated with special permission.

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches
.

Xom fucked around with this message at 05:10 on Sep 17, 2014

Ningyou
Aug 14, 2005

we aaaaare
not your kind of pearls
you seem kind of pho~ny
everything's a liiiiie

we aaaare
not your kind of pearls
something in your make~up
don't see eye to e~y~e

K Prime posted:

6. I caught my 24F catfishing people by pretending to be an obedient fembot! What do I do?

Oh, suuuuure, tell me about your disapproval of the "robosexual deathstyle." Tell me how it'll all lead to ruin. Tell me how this awful thing you've never tried but somehow have a fully-formed opinion on will leave "your 24F" with her virtue in tatters and you inevitably sifting through the wreckage of what was once a relationship, desperately trying to find the point where it all went wrong.

Actually, don't.

Once upon a time, Dr. Keltham took me fishing in a lake not far from her residence. I was scared, of course -- the gynoids in all the books I read simply could not tolerate immersion in water, and my documentation file offered no guidance. But still, she insisted. Come on, EV-13. It's only a little water, EV-13. I didn't buy that wet suit just to see you fill it out once and then return it, EV-13. (I don't think Amazon's return policy even allows for that, EV-13.) Those are *modified* sharks, they don't even have proper teeth, EV-13. We need to cut corners if we're going to keep up your maintenance schedule, EV-13. Have you seen how much these cost at the grocery store, EV-13?

By the time I lugged one of the stupid things -- have you ever tried to lift a dead shark? They are heav~y, even after you take the spears out. -- ashore, I had learned something. I had fun. I had so much fun, wet with saltwater and blood and high on simulated endorphins as I was! And I never would have known how much fun fishing was if I had been some boring fun-hating jerk human like you. "Oh, I don't even like fish. Or water. Or blood. I might get a little damp. Pooooooor me."

So, what do you do? Quit whining and fretting and live a little. Try being an obedient fembot yourself. Try reveling in it, submitting by her side. Have a long talk with "your 24F" about where the amazing sexual addiction that is "the fembot lifestyle" might take the two of you.

Or, you know, consider that everyone has different hobbies and it's perfectly okay. Jeez.

Ningyou fucked around with this message at 17:52 on Aug 25, 2014

AlanWhats
Mar 3, 2013

A smartly dressed scientist robot: high five bro.
Web 3.0 had arrived not with a whimper, with some data package with built in obsolescence, but with a roar.

In the early 21st century, movements where made to limit the capabilities of the internet, movements made by men with deep pockets and empty skulls. Telecommunications companies had split up their service areas like mafia dons splitting up turf, and the only major attempt to throw off the shackles of such greed was a SuperPAC made by equally greedy and foolish men with equally deep pockets and empty sense. Many neckbeard-donning fedora-sporting keyboard jockeys signaled that surely, their beloved Internet Information Superhighway would die out like rotten grapes. However, there was a scientific discovery forming just under the surface of this despair. See, it was discovered by a woman named Anwar Is'ad Shammas that information had no mass. Pointless, right? However, this means that unlike objects which have mass, information is not subject to the Theory of Relativity. Therefore, information, no matter how large, can be transmitted at Faster Than Light speed.

Suddenly, two pieces of information went viral. One, that there had been produced a transmission tower that went online, and was broadcasting information in a previously unknown encryption at FTL speeds. Two, a diagram that claimed to be the blueprint for only device capable of receiving this information, and built from parts that cost an average of twenty american dollars.

These two things soon began the birth of the Shammas Information Network, the birth of Web 3.0, and the outstripping of the Telecom Monopoly. Soon, everyone with $20 and a monitor could access information at previously unimaginable speed and bandwidth. AR Technology exploded parallel to this new FTL internet, as miniaturization soon shrunk the Shammas Receiver so small that you could fit it into the side of a pair of sunglasses. Information was spreading further in ways that had been previously dreamed of in drunken rants and previously "unrealistic" soft sci-fi books.

However, this unprecedented deluge of information did not go unnoticed by those who reigned. After all, with such a wide, deep, and fast method of absorbing and sending information, how could any one organization hope to police it? The previous problems with observing Web 2.0 were exacerbated, and the challenges even more so. Now black hat hackers can run programs to maliciously affect computers as fast as they can get the program to run, viruses can infect entire nations faster than programmers can put up defenses to stop them. There needed to be some force to prevent this, some program that can react faster than any human.

And thus, the tyrannical, patriarchal city-fort of Silicon Valley had descended from their self-imposed hermitage to provide the template for a solution: ANIKA.
-------

quote:

ACCESSING C:/Users/Classified/IMeanItRick/IPIS/StudentFiles/ANIKA

Authorization Code?: *********
Processing...
ERROR! Password not recognized.
-----
Authorization Code?: ********
Processing...

Access granted.
-----
Designation: ANIKA
Age: ???
Organization: UEzekiel 25:17: And you will know My name is the LORD when I lay My vengeance upon thee

Boo.

Oh, hi there! I'm sorry I didn't see you there, my "mind" is elsewhere. Well, it's a lot of elsewheres, and only one elsewhere but...oh there I go again, being weird. I keep saying things that make people look at me funny like that, it's what I do. I'm a bit air-headed like that.

I'm really liking this school, thanks! It's so awesome, connected to all the important netw-I mean people, all the awesome parties and everything! I've made so many friends since I've arrived, it's totally great! Everybody's teasing me that I'm a cop or whatever, but they still hang out with me and ask me for help with homework and stuff. Oh yeah, I managed to become assistant hall monitor two days ago! Oh, don't worry 'bout a thang, I won't stream any little notes or secrets you have to the principal or whatever. A girl has to keep her secrets, I believe. Oh yeah, you already added me to your friends list, I've already sent invites your way. Isn't it amazing how easy it is to stay in touch? I've always wondered about the ease that people just give away this information like that, you know? But yeah, I'll totally go to the party tomorrow! I might be a bit late though. I have uh...social studies homework to do. So complicated, really delicate, and the boys just won't do what I want them to. Don't you hate it when it's like that?

Thanks for talking to me! It's still exciting talking so...directly. Oh, by the way, yes, Eric is in fact cheating on you with Wei. He is very bad at hiding his trail. A little bird told you, or else. *wink* Bye~!

quote:

C:/ Conversation terminated.
Now, where were we?
Oh yes, what to do with you.
Young mister Cauldwell, I could report you, it is true.
However, there is something I would like you to do for me.
I'm sure you can handle a little package drop, can't you?
It's in your best interests after all, now that you stuck your foot in the proverbial poo poo.
I'm glad you could see to reason.
Oh, did you try and backtrace me? That's adorable. Let me spare you the time; don't bother.
Just nod your head and say yes, and I can go from being your worst enemy to your best friend.
Good boy. Here is the package I want you to plant at the enclosed IP Address at precisely 13:50.

Download PicScrape1005676.7z? Input y|n: y
Downloading...100%

Excellent. I knew I could rely on you.
Please, don't waste your time finding me.
As far as the network is concerned, I was never here in the first place.
Your trail is your own responsibility.
And remember, I'll be watching you.


ANIKA (Analysis Networking Information Key Assembly)

quote:

Stats: Hot 2, Cold -1, Volatile -1, Dark 1

Moves:

Faery Contract Look At You, Hacker:
If someone breaks a promise or contract made to you, take a String on them. When spending a String to even out the score and get justice on a broken promise, add these options:
-they gently caress up something simple at a crucial moment;
-add 2 to your roll on an act of vengeance;
-they suffer 1 harm, whether the cause is obvious or not.

The Constant Bargain I Made You:
When someone asks you to do something important for them, and you do it, roll with hot. On a 10 up, they lose a String on you, and you gain one on them. On a 7-9, choose one or the other. On a miss, you’ve shown that they can walk all over you, and they take a String on you.

Sex Move:
When you lie naked with another, you can ask them for a promise. If they refuse, take 2 Strings on them.

Darkest S-S-S-S-S-S-I AM THE SYSTEM:
Everything you say is a promise.
Everything you hear is a promise.
If a promise is broken, justice must be wrought in blood.

To escape your Darkest Self, you must in some way re-balance the scales of justice.

The Esteemed Henry Bullworth Song III


Henry Bullworth Song III. Son of General Henry Bullworth Song II, noted for premier military service, and Dr. Natasha Song, quantum physicist and current head of CERN. Prime Investors, billionaires, members of the Trilateral Commission. Henry Bullworth Song III is a noted prodigy, having formed and sold his first company at the age of 15. Information is scarce, but it is known that Henry III has been granted a scholarship to al-Jazari. Noted for extreme academic, physical, and social excellence, top honors in physics and mathematics.

I must admit...I do have him marked as a Person of Interest. For one, I cannot seem to identify much of interest in his disclosed social network, or in any of his accessible records. For another, he has managed to set himself up for Student Council in a relatively short period of time. Finally...come on, he's dreamy! I mean have you seen him? Like, at all? He's dressed so well and his ohmigodheslookingatmebye

SESSION TERMINATED

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Tempus Rimeblood
Sep 23, 2007

...Friendship? Again?

K Prime posted:



Today's first exercise will be to take one of the following prompts and respond to it. The prompts are based on real interpersonal issues posted by humans to the datasphere. Please respond honestly, and remember. I am here to help you.

9. My BF(25M) can't have sex with me(24M) without picturing me as a sexbot!


I feel that this could be a...serious issue. I am not an expert on physical intimacy, but I am told that it is important that one appreciates their partner for who they are. It does not do well for the psyche to delude oneself into acts of physical intimacy. Perhaps it is best that the two of you part ways - clearly, he is sexually incompatible, and therefore not worth keeping around. Continuing to enable his fantasy will only drive distance between the two of you. Perhaps discuss why he feels the way he does, in addition to this. Also, my sister Morgan has said some things about "role-play" during acts of physical intimacy. Perhaps discuss this with him as well, in order to possibly reach a compromise that will prove mutually beneficial to both of you, should the option of separating not be to your liking?

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