[Open] Choosing A New Path

[kree_soldieress]

WHO: Lauri-Ell, Open
WHERE: Around Temba, Hospital
WHAT: Patrol and New Datapoint
WHEN: Mid-June to end of the month
WARNINGS: N/A

I. I Walk These Lonely Roads | Roads of Temba
No matter the decision as to whether her purpose here was changing or not, there was still some inherent things that were not going to change. After Lauri's morning work out she put up a sign at the civics center training area saying to contact her if someone wanted work out help. And then she set out to do the normal. Hammer in hand, Accuser armor wrapped around her, Lauri-Ell walked confidently through the early morning streets. It was time to do her patrols.

But she was getting started a little later today, and she was happy to see others around, raising her free hand in a greeting and offering them a smile.

"It grows warm in the mornings, yes? Very lovely."


II. Learning The Ropes | Hospital
It had taken time to come to this conclusion. Time and soul searching, and the kindness extended to her by Omega and Billy recently. And the realization that she did not need the weapons the Agrii provided to protect others. Which meant she could learn to protect people in more ways.

That didn't mean she entirely knew what to do with this knew knowledge. Lauri-Ell removed her hand from the datapoint and just... stood there for a moment.

"I still don't understand," she said, a bit frustrated before she turned and entered the hospital. "But I suppose I should see if there is a means to learn properly."

Comments

[buildingitsir]

York feels his ire perk up, but holds up a finger for a moment. Gets the attitude mostly under control. "See, that's the thing. I wasn't supposed to defend myself. An android doesn't have emotions, no feelings. Only responses as designated by programming. But I broke my programming so I could save myself. I deviated and hurt the men trying to tear me apart so I could flee."

It was tough to explain to someone not from his world, York thinks. "I still like building things. I was helping patch sections of Jericho when I made my way there. Jericho being a safe house for androids in my world," he tagged on hastily. "But everything else, the emotions and attitude are all from me deviating. Sort of like a train that jumps from its rails and yet keeps going. I know that trains can't keep going without the rails, it's a metaphor."

[kree_soldieress]

"That is silly," she says after a long moment. "You are a being that thinks and reasons. Emotions are rather reasonable to expect after that. Not all machine species have it, yes, but they aren't devoid of it either."

No, she thinks the more important thing is to accept that perhaps the code was wrong.

"Maybe you didn't break. Maybe you became whole."

[buildingitsir]

"Yeah, but in my world, we're not supposed to have the emotions part. We're built to serve our purpose. But maybe you're right. I don't know if dad intended for me to deviate but..."

He frowns, thinking. "It was easier than I thought it would be. One of my brothers deviated as well, but he's so much calmer and nicer than me." Maybe Duncan should've been brought here instead of York. The older android was far easier to get along with than he was.

His eyes stare ahead for a long moment as they walk, then cast downwards. "I'm actually still broken. My brother brought parts into the workshop in Malibu, but the house was destroyed before they could be installed and I... left before another set was brought in." He smirks up at her. "So I'm a fucking mess. Broken coding, broken body, broken attitude. Totally fucking lovable, right?"

[kree_soldieress]

Perhaps his father didn't intend it, but neither did her creators. And did it matter when they had will of their own?

"You earned your anger. But you are not broken. You are whole, just in another way. Your body is not broken, you bear the scars of the way you've been treated. Your attitude is not broken, it is defensive. And your coding is not broken. You just have free will. These are not problems."

[buildingitsir]

It seems that York is more human than he likes to claim, with how much he's changed since deviating. But it was better this way. To have hopes and goals compared to the mindless obedience he had been saddled with initially.

He has earned his anger, but others... haven't. Not here at least. Some did, but not all of them, right? Hm. "No, no I actually do have some broken segments. I mean, I get what you're saying. But the fine mesh netting of my synthskin was never repaired where humans hurt me, and the component that helps maintain and regulate my energy resource shorted out during that attack too. We didn't get them replaced before our house was attacked and wiped out."

York rubs the back of his neck. "I do have free will, which I guess is just... my coding now. So does this make us deviant acquaintances now?"

[kree_soldieress]

"Yes," Lauri-Ell answered with a soft nod. "I think we are deviant acquaintances. We aren't what our creators intended. We wish not only to be different, but to be more."

And to be seen for themselves. And that is important to fight for.

[buildingitsir]

"Yeah, definitely didn't uh, turn out how dad wanted me to. What do you remember from my dream room? I can't really remember much from other's. Just... little snips here and there. It's... I hate it. Makes me feel like my programming is haywire or something. I was mess the whole time down there."

Though on the upside of going down there, York had seemed to mend a couple of rifts he had started when he arrived, like with Jon and Mini. Slow but steady progress. Sort of.

[kree_soldieress]

"I most definitely did not turn out how my creators would have wished," she admits. But Carol said that their mother would have liked her. That... was a comfort. "But you are not haywire. You're you. You are York. You are like a pricklebeast, but you are still you."

And yes, healing was a good thing too.

[buildingitsir]

"A...a what? A pricklebeast?" Immediately his system tries to do a search on an internet he's not connected to here. Right. No internet. He's trying to search through his main database to find the closest match. Maybe it was something that was from Lauri-Ell's world?

The closest thing that comes up in an animal search is... a hedgehog. "Is it a hedgehog? Or is it an actual animal from your world?"

[kree_soldieress]

"Yes. Little earth things that fit in your hand and look like many prickles together," she confirmed. Though the word makes her pause. "Is that what they are called? Your world has so many strange terms. I was told that furbeasts are actually called 'cats', but it looked more like an Earth form of a Flerkin to me."

So many earth creatures.

[buildingitsir]

She was serious. Actually serious. He has to pause in his walk with her to laugh, pressing a hand to his eyes as the amusement lights up his circuts. It's strange, the light emotion that flows through him at the action in response to delight.

"You just called me a fucking hedgehog." There's a moment where he pulls his programming together and walks again with her. "No one's ever compared me to one before. Who told you about them? Also I like the name 'pricklebeast' better to be honest."

[kree_soldieress]

Of course she was serious. Why would she not be? Lauri-Ell is actually shocked by the laughter. What was going on with that? She didn't know and didn't know how to find out.

"I saw one, on a human television show. No one named it. Well, they named it Edelgard. I didn't think that sounded like an animal name."

[buildingitsir]

He notes her shocked face and glances away. York's not sorry that he found her reaction funny of course. Maybe a bit embarrassed, even if it can't show on his face like a real human's.

"Edelgard? That's a terrible name. Probably should've named it Spike or Sonic or something." There were references in there that she probably wouldn't get, but that was okay. York could probably make a lot of references for his earth that people wouldn't get.

[kree_soldieress]

"Why those? Spike or Sonic?"

Surely he must have a reason for such a name. Spikes aren't what they have. And what is Sonic?

[buildingitsir]

"Fictional characters from my world. Like Sonic is a fictional hedgehog character that can run super fast. The name Spike, just because they look spikey. I know the spike thing fits better with a porcupine, but whatever." He waves it off in a dismissive fashion. "I guess, uh, inside jokes from my earth."

"Anything like hedgehogs where you're from then? Or are they just a thing for us earth natives?"

[kree_soldieress]

A hedgehog that runs super fast?

"And what tales of morality are told of this hedgehog character?"

Yes she's assuming he's a fable.

"There are creatures that have prickles, yes. Often tipped with poisons."

[buildingitsir]

"Yeah, I don't know the canon lore for Sonic that well. I know he was a popular video game and there was other stuff made for him, but I don't have time for things like that where I'm from. Too busy trying to get recognized as a person and all that shit."

A glance to her with a slight smirk. "I guess I'm thankful that you see me as a hedgehog and not a porcupine then. Prickly, but not poisonous."

[kree_soldieress]

"Ah, what is a video game?"

Yep, lost once more. Truly her cultural experiences, of her own people and of humanity, are dreadfully narrow.

"What is a porcupine?"

[buildingitsir]

"Uhhh, just a game one would play on a television. It's visual media. Something to entertain someone as a hobby. Though I guess in my earth's past some made it a career. As for a porcupine, it's just another animal. Bigger than a hedgehog, with quills for protection."

In his pocket, his communicator dinged. Then dinged a few more times. Pulling it free, he checks the direct messages and smirks a little. "Hate to break away like it's a bad date, which it's not because I've enjoyed walking - of all things, who would've fucking thought - I should head out. Someone apparently wants my attention." Someone that had an awful shirt and was almost a coulrophobic. Almost.

[kree_soldieress]

Quills for protection. Peter Quill? No, probably not.

"So another form of human entertainment. How intriguing. I had not heard of it in my limited time in New York City."

Still, his decision to walk away earns a nod from Lauri-Ell. She quite understands. That is something he must do, so she will accept it with a bow.

"Have care then, my Pricklebeast friend."