Lancer wannabe

[cloningblues]

[1] [It's a video transmission! Which shows a teenage boy, trying not to be tense and awkward and failing miserably. Also it's very obvious he's reading from offscreen.]

Is this on...? Unity Group, I should introduce myself. My name is Toshikazu Asagi. I am a member of Team Rabbits, and the pilot of the experimental AHSMB Blue One. My team was assigned to work with you after the recent operation, and... I hope we'll be able to repel aliens and other enemies as well as we did this day. We saved lots of people together.

...I'm not the team leader, but if you hae questions for any member of the team, you can find us all around easily enough. Let's work well together.

[He sighs in relief. That went better than expected, despite his stage fright! Suddenly Asagi realizes the camera is still going on and grabs the screen, cutting the signal. The transmission is over but he can still be easily reached, either via the comms or in person.]

[2] [Asagi inspects his accomodations at Star Rose. The room is comfortable enough, much more spacious than what he was used to at the academy.]

This looks very good. I think I can get used to living like this! Just...

What are you doing in my room?

[Not restricted to just people he knows. Groups welcome too.]

Comments

[anewmachine]

Oh. One of those.

Well, I appreciate the warning. I've dealt with... weirdness before.

[cloningblues]

Er... I don't mean that he's weird or creepy! Not more weird than anyone on my team is, at least. Just that he's very... enthusiastic.

[anewmachine]

I don't know. I mean, how weird are the rest of your team? You could all secretly be awful people for all I know.

[cloningblues]

When someone on Team Rabbits is horrible, they're very open about it. Trust me.

[anewmachine]

I hope it doesn't come up often. It's nice to have other UG people based on the Star Rose, now. I'd rather not have to avoid them!

How'd you get to be called Rabbits, anyway?

[cloningblues]

Each team has an animal name. They seem to be assigned at random. It's not because we're eating a lot of carrots.

[anewmachine]

So it's not because you've been engineered for enhanced vision?

[cloningblues]

Do rabbits really see better than most mammals?

[anewmachine]

They must! Why else would they eat so many carrots?

[cloningblues]

To make up for their naturally bad eyesight?

[anewmachine]

...So it's your intelligence they enhanced! The name's a red herring!

[cloningblues]

That was just a guess. I don't know if it's true.

[anewmachine]

...Well now you've shattered my dreams. Way to go.

So you lot are with the Unity Group now, huh. Going to be fighting Wulgaru? Or whoever needs clobberin'?

[cloningblues]

...Well, I have an improved ability to process information. I just don't know anything about rabbits.

[Asagi admits this reluctantly. He doesn't like to talk to strangers about the stuff that makes him unlike a normal human.]

Project MJP was made to fight the Wulgaru. But as part of UG, I will have to fight all kinds of threats... I think.

[anewmachine]

Hey, that's pretty cool! I'm really good at multitasking, personally. Although I wasn't so much engineered for that, it's just how my brain works.

[Liz seems perfectly cheerful about this admission. Normalcy is overrated!]

And yeah... we're all supposed to be pitching in, aren't we? Although everyone has their specialties, I guess. Focus on your strengths, and all that.

Sis and I don't really have a favoured enemy or anything, but I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up working together a fair bit. The Rose is optimized for space work for the time being, and it was pretty neat coordinating with your mission control.

[cloningblues]

You seem very upbeat about this.

[anewmachine]

Shouldn't I be? I get to do stuff! Real stuff, on my own, with my own hands! I can travel the world and the Earth Sphere, and see all kinds of amazing things that I'm right there for, for real!

I think it's pretty great.

[cloningblues]

Since you're an AI... Does that mean this is the first time you can, you know, interact with things?

[anewmachine]

No, no, I've been dealing with the physical world as long as I've been alive. My whole architecture's built around embodiment.

My hardware's big, though, and always changing while I grew up. The Rose is the first time I've really been able to move around with a body I'm inside, instead of one I'm controlling from somewhere else. Wherever I go, there I am. No lag, no disassociation. It's a whole different experience.

It's part of why I use things like this for human-scale stuff. [The drone spins in the air.] I could use a humanoid body, but if I'm just puppeteering it from outside, it feels... uncanny.

[cloningblues]

Hmm... Well, good for you, I suppose. A whole world of possibility is now open for you.

[Sounds like Asagi is not so excited about stuff himself.]

[anewmachine]

Hey, it's the same for you, you know! Even more so, technically, since you're younger than me!

[cloningblues]

No. I never had any possibilities other than being a soldier. It's something that was decided for me.

[anewmachine]

Huh? Who decided something like that? How?

That doesn't sound ethical at all!

[cloningblues]

I'm a part of the MJP Project. I've been in the academy as long as I remember, and all this time I've been told what a responsibility it is, that the fate of the world will depend on me, and all that stuff!

You can probably quit if you try hard enough. But would you quit, in those conditions? Just trying to find out makes you feel like you disappointed everyone!

[anewmachine]

[...Liz is quiet. She's not sure how to respond to that; most of what she thinks isn't anything it'd probably do Asagi any good to hear. After all, like he says... he does have a responsibility, or at least a burden few others can carry. Lives are riding on his fulfilling his assigned role.

But still... If he ever had something like a real choice in all this, he doesn't now remember it. And honestly, from what she knows, any choice he may have had wouldn't have counted for much - not when he was born and bred for one task, and raised knowing that. It's the kind of nightmare scenario people who don't know her all too often imagine her own creation was like.]

...I'm sorry. I shouldn't have made assumptions.

I... don't know what you should do. Or what you can do. But... I hope you'll have the chance to figure that out for yourself. That's something everyone deserves.