video: un. an.observer

[anobserver]

Um. I think I've learned how to use my Darkblood powers.

The only question now is how do I turn them off?!

[Nosferatmew and Mewnos: The Paws of Fate float on past the screen, each batcat not flapping its wings as a variety of other things in Lexi's bedroom float past Lexi, the batcats completely chill.

the batcats along with everything else in her bedroom, the remnants of a cocoon visible on the bed]

Looking for people who can also help me test the rest of my abilities, too. If not, I'll be back in the Satellite of Love tomorrow!

Comments

[anobserver]

Again and again. Okay.

[so she tries. slowly, she starts to relax and things go from hovering past her reach to within it. as soon as it does, she grabs a hold of the leashes for Nosferatmew and Mewnos and clings to them, the batcats starting to fly on their own]

I'm not thinking about the egg. I'm not thinking about the fact that I lost most of a month. Not thinking about any of that stuff, no.

[entreats]

[ There's something to be said about how good Ange's pokerface is that she manages to not externally wince at the way the other puts those last things - as if it doesn't make it more obvious that she is thinking about exactly all the stuff she's voicing out loud.

Instead Ange just manages to keep the same even tone she's been using this entire time, her face not betraying any emotion. ]

It's easier to think about something than to not think about something. [ She instead advices with that tone. ] Try to focus on something that makes you calm. Like a place that makes you feel comfortable, or something like that.

[ Rather than thinking about all the stuff that only further upsets anyone. ]

[anobserver]

[at this point, Lexi has no idea of the horrors she missed. and once she finds out, she won't be relieved, like oh I dodged a bullet. she'll be angry with herself for being out of commission when her friends and girlfriend were traumatized further. she'd feel like she should have been able to do something to help them and that she's a bad friend for not doing so.

so she's holding it together remarkably well. get back to her in about half an hour to find out how she's doing after that]

Okay...a place that makes me feel calm.

The library in East Highland. Not the one attached to the school, not the one in Gaze, the one from back home. I could spend hours there, wandering around and picking up random books which looked interesting.

[and items sink a couple of inches]

[entreats]

What's your favourite memory in that place?

[ Ange is keeping an eye on the state of things over there. And since it does look like it's slwoly starting to get better, Ange figures that it's probably the best to stick to this line of thinking right now.

A positive place, and a positive memory of that place. Maybe it'll be enough to put the items back on the ground by the time Lexi's memory returns to the here and now, she figures. ]

[anobserver]

The first time I found the collected volumes of Isaac Asimov. Kinda old-fashioned by today's sci fi standards, but they're classics for a reason.

[and things sink another couple of inches. enough for Nosferatmew and Mewnos to propel themselves the rest of the way to the comforter using their cute little batcat wings]

[entreats]

Isaac Asimov?

[ Ange repeats, seeming to consider it for a moment. She doesn't mind reading, so she's trying to go over the stuff she's read in her mind, trying to figure out if she recognizes the name..

She doesn't think she does though. ]

Don't think I've ever read anything he's written. [ If it even existed back in her own world.

It's always hard to tell. ]

Sci fi isn't really my thing anyway, so that might explain why. What was it about?

[ Might as well keep Lexi talking, if this entire thing is helping. It's not like Ange really minds listening to someone else talk about books anyway. ]

[anobserver]

A sci-fi writer. He's the one who came up with the fictional three rules of robotics: First Law, a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Second Law, a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. And the Third Law, a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. He came up with those laws in 1942, like. Decades ahead of his time. He's amazing.

[and don't give Lexi any more chances to nerd out, she can and will take it. and her items drop down by about a foot]

He also thought that humans would follow the same rules and not mistreat robots, but he's way more optimistic than I am. Humans mistreat humans sometimes when they just feel like it, so I figure that if they're allowed to treat some kind of AI badly, they will. Probably use them for dangerous jobs people don't want to do and it would be loads easier to start wars if the soldiers were all robots. I mean, no one would have to worry about getting killed, they'd throw robots at each other, but robots usually are associated with artificial intelligence. So a war between self-aware robots would be just as bad as one between people.

[and the items drop by another foot]

I don't know, maybe it's just me being a pessimist, but I think that history's been filled with examples of people being awful. Way too many to list and it's kind of depressing, really. So was the movie adaptation of "I, Robot," but that's because it was just plain bad and the special effects don't hold up at all.

[entreats]

[ Ange just hums.

It's hard to tell with how emotionless she seems - but then again, maybe it's exactly that fact that gives off the impression that she doesn't really mind talking about this, or just listening to Lexi ramble on about it. Ange doesn't seem to be protesting over here, either way, even as the other goes on.

Even as the items are slowly starting to get close enough to the floor again. ]

Ah, you don't have to convince me of that. I know very well exactly how awful people are. [ In fact, it's only this place that's making her the tiniest bit convinced that good people actually do exist.

Her own world never managed to do that. ]

But do you think that robots would be better than people if they didn't have those laws in place? Do you think they'd all be good by nature? [ Ange doesn't sound like she really falls either way on her opinion on that - mostly because she's never extensively thought about robots before.

Maybe she's just curious as to Lexi's answer to that. ]

What if they turn out just as crappy as humans?

[anobserver]

Yeah. It's depressing how so many people are. And how many times they don't have to pay for it! If it were up to me, I'd be some--some kind of karma Charles Bronson back home. I can think of at least a couple of people who have it coming.

[Nate Jacobs, to be first. she hadn't really had a problem with him until she heard the rumors about him trying to fuck Jules up at a party. and when Fez told her that Nate had turned him in to the cops for threatening him. he kind of looms in Lexi's mind as the personification of toxic masculinity white male privilege and he deserves to be taken down]

Not necessarily. They'll be like people: some good, some bad, mostly average. Average seems to be the default setting for humans, so why not robots? After all, their artificial intelligence will be patterned off of our own. And I can think of a lot of unintelligent people back home.

[and a laugh] As crappy and we'll all end up wiping each other out and the pet cats will inherit the Earth!

[entreats]

Of course it's the cats. [ Ange replies with a huff.

(She's definitely not just thinking of normal pet cats, but she doesn't elaborate on that either.) ]

I'm not so sure about the default setting for humans being average, though. Or maybe it changes from world to world. [ Ange is sure to keep her tone relatively calm as she says it.

The last thing she wants to do here is accidentally agitate Lexi and make her powers go all wild again, after all. But she still has to say this much. ]

Where I come from, I'd say the default setting was definitely bad. I haven't met a single good person there. [ But she's at least willing to admit, especially at this point where it feels more natural: ] It's very different here.

[anobserver]

Sometimes I think they already have. [at least Nosferatmew and Mewnos have, they're both thoroughly pampered batkitties]

Well, maybe average is an overstatement. Most people from back home are kind of assholes. [and she still had no idea of what was going on with her sister, Cassie. she knew something was, but Cassie would freak out and scream at her every time Lexi tried to find out what it was.

but that was a problem to solve back home. right now, her powers had to come first because they were what she was working with] Oh, jeez. That's got to be awful. Lonely, too. [but the idea of sharing a world with entirely bad people is horrifying] Yeah, it is. It's kinda weird, but I'll take it.