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[giveusfreedom]

[Markus is a bit nervous about introducing himself, but figures it's better late than never.]

Hello, everyone. I am new here, my name is Markus. I have reached a Data Point and learned more information about our...Mission.

[Is it even the right word? He's not sure.]

I am not built for heavy manual labour, [literally] but I am quite strong and resistant, and my senses are sharper than average. I can also give hand if we need to work with AI.

[Look at him, the proud leader of deviants tiptoeing around revealing his identity. What would Josh think? God, he's feeling guilty already.]

Let me know what you need help with, it's best to make the most of every second we are here.

Comments

[giveusfreedom]

As in orally carrying tales and legends of war to the newer generations?

[He may have not understood, but he wants to listen. Count him interested.]

[quintet]

No, that's... just oral history.

[Not to be confused with actual history.]

Noetic styes can pass on perception directly. Once someone dies, they can no longer be perceived by those who knew them, so there's no 'reality' of them left to reinforce those perceptions. Eventually, even the version of "you" that exists in someone's memory is gone, like sun-faded colors. If you can push back against reality enough to assert their continued existence on your own empathic strata, then you can simulate their personalities in a halo-partition.

It was my thesis project, final season at college: Ruminative Coroner's Otiose Tintinnabulation.

[giveusfreedom]

So your art is... [He thinks about it for a moment.] Keeping others' souls alive?

[Does he even have a soul to understand it? Well, he's alive, but...Who knows.]

[quintet]

[She looks at the screen with wide eyes. Her ears go back, then come up again— Quintet looks away. Holy shit.]

Uh.

[God's eyes, guy. You can't just come out and say stuff like that.]

...Yeah, you could put it that way.

[giveusfreedom]

It's a very noble art. I like to think that all other art forms, besides commenting on society or being a means of self expression, were trying to achieve that...And maybe never quite succeeded because of the filters of perception.

[Markus doesn't realize how intense this conversation is getting because he's just like that.]

[quintet]

...Thank you. Nobody's ever called it that before.

[Complex, maybe. Intricate. Strong? Sure, it's got power. But Noble. That was... weighty. High-minded, a real purpose that contributed to Society's foundation. That was more than a passing grade.]

I'm not really sure how it fits in with this "mission" though. I mean, I can fight, I'm a good strong-arm. But that doesn't seem unique here.

[giveusfreedom]

I suppose that only time and further observation can reveal what really needs to be done.

[He's focused on answering on topic. Oh, but you know damn well he's still thinking about Quintet's art and all the implications that come with it.]

Um...You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but is your art something that only a selected group of individuals could practise? It seems like something that only few are capable of pursuing...But if it wasn't the case, how would someone remember you accurately if your perception is impacted by your practising of the Art?

[While an android would not describe the technicalities as trippy, that is pretty much the effect that these concepts are having on Markus. If only because of the way he functions AND because he is alive, he feels a need to understand.]

[quintet]

Well, in theory, anyone could execute my Metanoia, but it takes a lot of training and some natural ability to pull it off. You have to be good at denial— it helps a lot if you're naturally skeptical to begin with.

[Which she is]

Part of it's function is deliberately letting go of the fact that the effect isn't, strictly speaking, "real". If your denial structures fail, then the whole thing falls apart. But aside from that— you can't be completely sure it's accurate.

It's based in the idea of memory; I mean, when was the last time you experienced something totally objectively? Everything you see and do is filtered through the lens of your physical body, and your own experience of the world, as well as the instincts and pre-conditioning that came before you were fully aware. Does that mean you can't know other people, or is it more that what you know of people is also a version of their true selves?

Sometimes the memory is the self. Or that's the theory it was based on. I originally designed it for my siblings... they died, when we were very young.

[giveusfreedom]

Denial structures?

[And of course he wonders whether he was experiencing things objectively before deviancy.]

It seems...Complicated.

[And sad, but he won't say that.]

[quintet]

Well yeah, guy, it was my mastery thesis. You don't work on those fully until your last seasons at the college, and they can take most of your life to conceptualize. Besides...

...People are complicated. Why would recreating them be simple?

[giveusfreedom]

Right. From what I have witnessed in my world, people end up infusing more life in each of their creations than they intend to, even the seemingly unrelated ones. I commend you for your diligence in mastering your art.

[quintet]

Is that common, where you're from?

[You have her interest, sir.]

By definition, a Metanoia is personal thesis; that's the point. But it doesn't sound like you're talking about personal passion projects.

[giveusfreedom]

Well...

[He's going to start 'speaking for a friend' now.]

In my world, there are androids, and they are modeled to resemble humans in order to assist them and understand them while still being advanced artificial intelligence. And yet...Some of them have gone through deviancy, they started feeling alive, and started acting like humans. Not all of them would do so, it was a response to their environment...And it looks like their creator planted a seed for that to happen.

[quintet]

Remember a few minutes ago when I asked you to simplify?

[Markus, she's a cat. Androids aren't a thing. You are making words up— but with enough context that, tilting her head at a different angle, she can almost see the meaning of.]

So, something that's... like human, but not treated like human. And whoever made them put the possibility into them for it to work out that way? [A moment, the spark of alarmed inspiration.] So— so, they were vacuous? But then they stopped. Is that right?

[giveusfreedom]

Yes, that's right.

[This is quite the intense first encounter with someone friendly. Good to know that Quintet is not the type to do small talk.]

I am not sure what the creator's goal was. Perhaps he was seeking to create a new lifeform or study how far technology could go? Or maybe do a social study on humans based on how they adjusted, that could be an option too...It's a very strange situation.

[quintet]

Sounds like the kind of thing a psychopath would do.

[She doesn't think much of the kind of people who try and introduce vacuous humans into society— or tries to manufacture said vacuous people, whatever the method. That kind of developmental route is just a shortcut, a way for society to eat itself. It's vicious, and seductive, but she's seen the outcome.]

What about the vacuous people, the ones who recovered? Were they alright?

[giveusfreedom]

Now, that's a good question.

[He holds back from scoffing.]

All androids, deviant or not, have been taken to camps or destroyed. I wanted to help with freeing them, but...I was interrupted.

[quintet]

What?

[What could interrupt-]

—Oh. You mean, you were brought here. Yeah, alright, that checks out. There is one thing you haven't explained, though.

[giveusfreedom]

Which thing? I'll try to explain to the best of my ability.

[If there is something he can possibly know. Guessing what's in Kamski's mind is too much even for an android. Except for Lucy, maybe. She seemed qualified enough, but...Unfortunately it's too late for her.]

[quintet]

Why is it your responsibility to intervene in any of it?

[Sure, society binds us all together, each for all and all for each, blah blah blah, but in practice? Territorial nature didn't die so easily; people tended to mind their own business.]

What does any of this have to do with you?

[giveusfreedom]

[Markus doesn't feel comfortable yet sharing that he's an android.]

It's devolved into a civil war. There is a climate of terror that is completely unreasonable. If humans actually bothered to listen to the androids' demands there could have been a peaceful agreement, but that hasn't happened yet. A whole species is being murdered for nothing, it's not fair.

[quintet]

So?

[All true, all valid, none of it an answer to her question. Quintet has a detective's nose, and it smells something hidden in this.]

Nothing is 'fair,' that's the law of nature; it's why we even have Society to begin with. You're obviously not in agreement with those that want to use vacuous people as fodder... But there's a pretty big gap between disagreeing with someone and taking a stake against them.

Look, if you won't answer the question, you can't think I'll be satisfied. Just say so if you'd rather not talk about it, guy; I might be an idiot, but I'm not stupid.

[giveusfreedom]

I...I owe it to Carl, among the other things.

[Markus is still cautious, but he doesn't want to end the philosophical conversation. Of course he doesn't. Carl raised him well.]

He was more than a mentor, [and master], he treated me like a son. He was...Disillusioned about where humanity was going, and saw in androids a hope for a new future, for a new society.

[He nods to himself.]

It's funny. He always said that humans were fragile machines, that they required constant maintenance, that they were too obsolete to understand...I didn't catch the irony of that at the time.