[cue poor unfortunate souls, or something]

[rebells]

Who: RECON TEAM ASSEMBLE
Where: the toxic seaweed Uvi lair
When: backdated to early Day 33 (8/9)
Open/Closed: if your character can fly and would gatecrash, go for it! otherwise ping prospit and I'll see what I can do for you.

[The flying fish were not precisely expected, but at that sign that the Uvi are preparing to head back to their base, it's time for TEAM RECON to assemble. Members would at least vaguely know one another and may have made tentative ride-sharing plans, but people have undoubtedly gotten mixed up during the night of fighting and there may also be one or two late additions . . . .

Either way, Jay can act as telepathic intermediary if you can't fly and need to hitch a ride. Time for a fishing expedition . . . ?]


((INK IS DECLARING THIS POST THREADJACK-FRIENDLY BY DEFAULT please be courteous and ping if people are off in their own extended thread but otherwise go wild!))

Comments

[deem]

Hopefully someone with the power to bring us here is able to do something about that...

[9S can imagine that must weigh heavily on Mikleo's mind, and surely his friend's as well. He's never been the deciding factor in the war, though he'd committed himself to destroying as much of the enemy as he could before the end came...

What were the results now, he wonders?]

I guess, compared to a world where human settlements exist, mine would seem very empty. We've been fighting a war for thousands of years against the forces of an invading race, and there aren't countries or towns the way you must know them.

[oneandmikleonly]

Hopefully...wait, thousands?

[sounds a little startled; very few of the people he's met so far have talked of long, long historical events, or lifespans]

What's the invading race trying to do? That sounds...rather bleak, I'm sorry...

[deem]

Invade, though their reasons haven't ever been clear. I don't know what planet they came from to begin with, only that this war's gone on for as long as it has.

[Which bespeaks some persistent interest, or rather...

It says much about the programming of their creations]

Androids like me were created by mankind, and machine life-forms were created by the enemy, and we fight for those who made us. Well, androids do. The machines turned on their creators.

[And there's a certain contempt that seeps into his tone with that final thought. It's unthinkable to any android]

[oneandmikleonly]

[softly, after some thought]

Did...humans make you, then? And...how does that work? You yourself look and seem very human, just kind of heavy.

[though he guesses he can't talk much. seraphs often look human too.]

[deem]

Androids like me are made in the image of our creators, so that's why. There might be some more efficient or powerful form than this, but I'm glad to be this way.

[Doubtless, that sentiment stems from a variety of sources, one among them a reverent deference toward the race that gave rise to his own]

As for how I act, I guess it could get pretty involved if I were technical about it. But while the letter in my unit designation is my type, the number refers to my personality data. Any 9S unit would start off more or less like I did, but I...

[He trails off into pensive silence]

I think it's my memories that make me who I am. I'm not sure about comparing myself to a human, though.

[oneandmikleonly]

Humans...are really resourceful in every world, it looks like. They must hope from a lot from you, if they made you look like them.

[the others are ahead of them, a little, bright shapes in the gloom, but inside their air bubble it's just them, and quiet, oddly personal]

Were you subject to experiences a...a regular 9S unit wouldn't be? Is that why memories make the difference? I'm trying to understand...

[deem]

...Something like that. The life I've lived is mine.

[There are other 9S units, and they all take pride in their ability as high-performance models. But his time with 2B, the things he's seen and the things he's endured, those are his alone.

And maybe that's why he preferred to suffer anything rather than lose them again]

I guess you could say I know the difference between having those memories and being without them. So I've come to think it matters.

[oneandmikleonly]

You've lived a rough life, huh? But you're right, memories are terribly important. I hope Qri never tries to ask for something as personal as that.

[he doesn't even know how he'd react to that sort of thing. badly, he supposes. but surely they're not in for that? qri, for all her apparent eccentricity and inefficiency, seems to mean well.]

[deem]

Even if she did, I'd refuse.

[There's a sharpness about those words that he doesn't intend, for all his determination. He'd chosen a fate worse than death rather than lose his memory, although he can't expect some mysterious figure who gathered the lot of them together to understand that.

He supposes with 2B here, his decision might differ, because he has and always will place her well-being before his own. But he knows it would hurt her if he forfeited his memory for any reason... It's a choice he hopes he's never confronted with]

...Sorry. For androids like me, it's not our body that matters, so much as those memories. That's the part we can preserve, even if we're destroyed, with the right measures in place.

[oneandmikleonly]

I didn't mean to imply it would happen. I'm sorry, too...

[he shivers a little, 9S might be able to feel the movement, rolling under his scales]

...you sound a little like you're speaking from experience.

[deem]

I know you didn't mean anything by it.

[He pats what approximates Mikleo's shoulder in this form, in some effort at reassurance]

I've...dealt with some things. [A true understatement, but they're weighty matters he hasn't truly discussed, or even gotten so close to broaching, before] You okay though?

[oneandmikleonly]

Yeah, I'm fine. It just sounds...like an incredibly different world, and way of living; even more different than anything I know. Guess that's a little overwhelming to think about.

But, thank you for telling me.

[deem]

2B calls me chatty, so I'm not too sure it's anything to thank me for.

But for what it's worth, this all seems pretty different to me too.

[oneandmikleonly]

I like chatty. Chatty's fine.

[he likes that people can know he's there to talk to.]

Guess we're technically all in the same boat then, huh? Strangers in a strange land...

[deem]

...You're a nice guy, Mikleo.

[It seems to him that it bears stating, even as they drift (impossibly, to his standards) through an ocean in the sky. Strangers in a strange land indeed]

Anyway, that's a good point. At least having something in common is a good basis for working together. If none of us shared anything, I don't imagine it'd do much for teamwork.

[oneandmikleonly]

That's true. Though, all our differences are valuable as well. It makes us more versatile...

[he squints ahead into the gloom; the seaweed base is rising up, up, up into view, and the others are slowing to a stop ahead.]

...speaking of teamwork, though, I think we're gonna need to try some here. Talk more later?

[deem]

[9S nods along, though realizing Mikleo can't see that, he hums and pats that big dragon shoulder again]

Sounds like a plan. Meanwhile...guess we've got an obstacle to contend with.

[And so they will, in the next exciting episode: Dances with Burning Plant Matter]