Video - A few hours after new arrivals, Garden Car, Fiddlesticks 1

[mtsilver_conquor]

[The first thing that shows up on the screen is something very, Very Neon Green before it's pulled away to reveal... something cartoonish if it wasn't for the shine and fact it's real, if not creepily unexpressive. It's also smaller than Princess. Also still Neon Green as it floats next to a grinning, orange clad Eva, who has a smallish red bird settled on her shoulder.]

Hey sorry for not greeting any of you on the platform, but I was kinda distracted some new pokemon.

[That and her phone (mostly her phone), but details.]

Anyway, I figured this is the fastest way to let you all know that starting tomorrow sometime, if you need to move Princess or deal with him, Kuroba-kun's looking after him for the next seven-day.

[Her grin is a fully-fledged one of pure mischief as she ends the feed.]

Comments

[pleple]

[ Ple Two slips in quietly, but slowly, obviously Not really trying to sneak up anyways.

She nods a greeting. ]

Not as cute, maybe, but... interesting. They create life in your world? Like this?

[mtsilver_conquor]

Yeah. The tech to make the AIs pokemon's been around for at least 70 years, maybe more. The AIs aren't unchained though. Gods no, That's just... no.

[It's a visceral no, the gut-wrenching one that suggests Arkean's have learned the hard way what a Bad Idea unchained and unshackled AIs are.]

[pleple]

Unchained...

[ So you don't let your AI just do their own thing. ]

That's quite a long time to refine the technology, I'm sure, and to learn what safeguards are needed.

[ But still, it reminds her of the 'conditioning' that made her obedient to her master, and tension creeps into her voice. ]

[mtsilver_conquor]

Yeah and the mistakes of what not to do. But, they are just AIs. They're not sapient and the sentience of the species is next to nil outside what algorithms are plugged into it. A bug-type has more emotions than a machine does.

[She believes that to her core.] Not that it stops people from humanising them. I do it with Lele and I had her -it- built to my specs.

[pleple]

Her. ...it.

[ It's sensible. Ple Two is a living, flesh and blood thing. Lele is just a program in an artificial shell.

Yet logic doesn't completely vanquish the feeling in the bit of her stomach. ]

I wonder if people will know if they've... crossed the line into giving a machine too much resemblance to life.

[mtsilver_conquor]

[Eva's smile is hollow.]

That factors into the mistakes of what not to do and it's why the AIs are so heavily chained. Sapient pokemon are unnatural. It's one thing for a pokemon to learn and have feelings and emotions, but another for it to be sapient and like a human.

That always ends in death. Always.

[pleple]

...ah. I suppose... they would certainly not enjoy the place in life that the world demands of them.

[ And would attempt to solve that. With all their fangs and claws and ice beams. ]

[mtsilver_conquor]

They wouldn't- Arkea's not without her own problems and adding another sapient species into the mix...

[She doesn't even have to fake the shudder. Not when she knows exactly what would happen and she can't even say it.]

Well, it's for the best, really. Anyway, Lele's not even that advanced for a proygon2 AI and I nixed a lot of the self-learning programs because I do have human security as well, and they'd input data at the end of the day.

[pleple]

[ Still. Still, it's created life. Without free will. No amount of pragmatism can shake the feeling that it's too much like her. ]

I'm... glad that I was at least... created human...

And that I don't need an artificial intelligence.

/late :(

[mtsilver_conquor]

Created... h-how?

[Why does she have a bad feeling?]

not that late :P

[pleple]

I-oh. I'm simply... a clone, of another girl.

[ Right. She hadn't been just... telling people that. But Eva, she can trust. ]

[mtsilver_conquor]

[Things she was so not expecting: this.]

That... Um... D....Did they catch the doctor who did it? Who... who made you, I mean.

[pleple]

'Catch'? I'm sure the Federation pretended to 'punish' them while giving them a nice secret lab to work for them instead.

[mtsilver_conquor]

[brb trying so hard not to throw up in her mouth.]

Gods... they... they let Traitor Doctors live? What- that's... why?

[Congrats, Ple, on getting to see Eva horrified.]

[pleple]

Traitors to who? I was... of course... somewhat illegal, but when has that stopped anyone?

[ Barely stops people from using nuclear weapons most of the time. She's not that dangerous. ]

...and if the enemy has crossed the line, then you need to catch up, to not risk losing an advantage. There's the logic, at least.

[mtsilver_conquor]

Traitors to the gods? to life itself? No matter what's happening in your world, that-

[She has Feelings. So many feelings about this.]

It's one thing to have the tech to make babies and bring them to term in the tanks -artificial wombs-, but it's another to start playing around and designing or cloning people. That's not what it means to make a baby and everyone knows it. Doctors and anyone who goes against it are Traitors.

[Eva swallows, more to keep back the bile than anything.]

Those who made you should be caught, tried and publicly executed for the crimes against not only you, but the girl they cloned. You... You're just a victim in this, Ple-chan and the law courts would do everything to protect you.

Because... Because not all Traitor Doctors are caught before a child enters the world, and that child is considered to be innocent of any wrongdoing.

[Too bad she can't actually apply that logic to Fluffy and the rest of the mewtwo in the world. It'd make life so much easier in many respects. Gods damn the Rockets.]

[pleple]

Hmph.

[ Someone comes from a place with very strong laws against this apparently. ...and has strong feelings herself. Personal reasons? ]

It's up to the winner of a conflict to decide who is to be persecuted. I was likely... planned by a team, and I have no idea where they are now. Perhaps none of them are alive... but whatever the case, I and my sisters remained in the possession of Glemy Toto. For the purposes of creating an obedient... corps of Newtype soldiers.

[ But, oops, he had to wake them up young. ]

Perhaps... a court would find me innocent of the orders I followed. I don't feel innocent.

[mtsilver_conquor]

They do say history's written by the victors.

[Even in her world, that is so very, very true.]

My hope is they are dead. To toy with life, and then desire it to be nothing more than tools... That's abhorrently wrong. I know... I know someone, a child still, a little younger than you, who was created like that. To be nothing but a tool and the child soldiers of the selfish desires of greedy humans. If she's innocent, then so are you, no matter how you feel.

[pleple]

Always the case, yes.

[ Often for centuries, anyways. ]

I've killed people. Without a single regret in my heart... even if I was made that way. It's not like I can just undo that, whether or not I'm... entirely to blame for it.

[mtsilver_conquor]

[Eva's smile is one of understanding and experience, as if she's had this talk before.

Or, something like it at least.]

You can't, but it's how you face the future that counts and how you deal with it. As far as I care, you're a victim of circumstance and conditioning, just like my friend is.

[And she does think of Fluffy as a friend.] And if anyone says otherwise, point them in my direction, will you?

[pleple]

...people here are mostly encouraging, like you.

[ And others have convinced her that she's worth 'redemption'. ]

Fighting is still what I'm... best at.

[mtsilver_conquor]

[Because you are worth redemption, Ple!]

No shame in that, but don't let it define you.

[Lele bobs in agreement and if Eva hadn't already denied access to its vocalbox, it would have backed that up with an 'agreement'.

Though how much is because it does agree and how much is because it's Eva's pokemon is unknown.]

See? Even Lele agrees. But people here have probably already told you that, right?

[pleple]

Lots of them. It... doesn't hurt to hear it again.

[ Even Lele agrees. How nice. ]

[mtsilver_conquor]

I'll say it as many times as I must, too.

[She means it, too.]

[pleple]

...that's... kind of you. Thank you.