A Menace to Society

[Ashlie Minamida]

"None taken. What he needs is a mouth then." she says, rifling through some parts until she finds a small speaker to pass into the container.

[Will Stanton]

Crackle. Static. And then a high pitched whine, enough to hurt the ears of anyone standing their listening.

To ASHLIE, who could perceive things faster than most people, the whine could be decoded as a series of lightning-fast beeps, in code. They were just so closely strung together than most people wouldn't be able to find the gaps between them.

The code wasn't full complete thoughts, yet, but the more they added, the better they were getting.

Code: Select all

Cramped.  Need more.  Thinking too slow.  Can't stretch.  Need more.  Not enough data.  Errors.  Errors everywhere.  Need MORE.

[Ashlie Minamida]

"He might be a tad too much sped up, but we're getting somewhere. He needs to fix himself. This isn't my strong suit... We need something that's a strong metaphor for repairing. A wrench? Adhesive? Band-aids?"

[Null]

"You're thinking too literal," Will said, shaking his head and walking back over. "Right now, it's just a baby, hungry for anything. It needs good stuff to grow up. It doesn't need to be repaired, it needs to be expanded.

Think nature versus nurture here. There are basics of, well, 'Williness' in there, waiting to express themselves. There's just not enough 'there' there for him to really....latch on to. The ways in which that will manifest itself depends on what we give it to build off of. Different parts of his innate personality will be focused or diminished based on stimuli it's given.

If you put a wrench in there, my money would be on that guy being more of a gearhead when he gets out rather than just 'repairing' himself. Band-aids might make him more interested in biology or medicine or something...or maybe give him a thirst for blood. Pour enough glue in there, and maybe he comes out as a stallion. You never can tell with these things. By being stuck in a rec room in a base for 50 years, he...I...we developed a 'use me to have fun' complex. Could have been worse, I suppose."

Will paused for a moment, thinking. "You said you wanted to give him autonomy, right? So I'd imagine you'd rather let him somehow pick these things without external input? Or would you rather guide it so there was no danger of, well, another handsome young man like me?"

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Then what we need is a maze for him to move through and put something to absorb into the intersections. Or really, just a second container he can move into by picking one of the airlocks and the object within. Or even simpler..." she goes to gather up some materials, mainly just some connectors and a couple of thick tubes, assembling them until several smaller tubes feed into the main one and then she connects all of them to the various airlocks on the container.

"We put in a selection of objects, he can chose which one to absorb but regardless of which one he picks he gets funneled back into the enclosure and we present him with another selection."

[Null]

"I was just going to suggest slapping him in a Roomba, but I guess this is why you're the tech wizard.

Plus, you know. He sucks."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Very funny."

Ashlie starts gathering up some items, trying to keep it varied, but they're in a workshop, so there's predominantly technological and mechanical things. The final selection ends up being:

- Some blank pieces of paper and a mechanical pencil
- A small microfiber towel for cleaning delicate surfaces
- A focusing lens from a camera
- An empty soda-can left by one of the students
- A spring
- An old candy bar
- A handful of screws

[Will Stanton]

For a moment after ASHLIE opened the airlocks, nothing happened.

And then, like lightning, the sphere shot out tendrils in all directions. With the pressure created by the device released by the airlocks, it began to expand and consume, quickly voraciously.

It wasn't going in every path evenly, however. The candy bar was gone pretty much before anyone could react one way or another, and the spring followed it shortly thereafter. The camera lens was the next to be enveloped, cracking and crunching as the blob continued on it's way, growing out and pressing against the edges of the glass containers as the glowing green lights continued to pulse and extend down the length of it.

It did not, however particularly go for the screws or the empty soda can. Those tunnels were mostly blob-free, indicating at least some kind of direction or intelligence (as opposed to the encounter in the hospital).


Cracks began to appear in the edges of the container the blobs had filled, as it continued to try to expand larger and larger.

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Okay, maybe a proper maze might be more appropriate to give him enough room to grow." she says as she watches the mass strain against it's containment.

"Not ideal circumstances to test the Danger Room repairs, but better than risk a breach at this point." Very carefully she takes a hold of the container and lifts it up.

[Null]

"Your plan is to allow him MORE space? I would think less space, and more PRESSURE might be the best.

Hell, go all out and put a molten steel casing around it. Or plastic resin, and make a new cue ball for the XUB."


The container quivered and vibrated -- it was unclear just how long it's structural integrity might hold.

[Ashlie Minamida]

"If you just want to be rid of it then why go through all this trouble?" she says, but doesn't actually wait for an answer, instead heading for the Danger Room at a hurried clip.

[Null]

"Because 'getting rid' of it is harder than you might think! Better to keep control of it."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"You are the expert on the topic." she says before leaving the workshop, hurrying down the hall towards the Danger Room and already starting up it's systems and designing a layout. With the container already cracking she orders the doors to hiss open as she breaks into a run, throwing the container the moment her calculations and trajectories tell her it'll land past the door and inside the simulation.

[Null]

"And yet you don't listen to me. How very American of you," Will said, peering over to see what ASHLIE had programmed.

[Ashlie Minamida]

"I've been locked in a metaphorical box like that myself. Twice. I'm biased."

The simulation is a large octagonal room made of clear plexiglass, each side with an opening leading into a smaller chamber holding various objects. The opening to each of the smaller rooms has a sensor-grid to detect when something moves through the aperture. The selection of items is a little broader but still fairly random. A box of crayons. A deck of cards. A rolling pin. An empty jar. A spool of thread. A frisbee. A credit card. A sword.

[Null]

The crayons, playing cards, and, oddly, the empty jar are the next things to go. If anything, the blob seemed to be shying away from the sword, oddly -- it had been more than happy to eventually gobble up everything else, but the sword might have been a bridge too far.

"Cards and crayons. Congratulations, you're creating a child."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"If that's what it wants to be then I'm not going to stop it."

After the crayons, cards and jar the remaining openings close and the smaller rooms on the outside sink into the floor, replaced by a new ring of rooms with new items.

A X-team uniform. A stack of tax forms. A shield. A punching bag. A pillow. A pocket-watch. Aviator sunglasses. A phone charger.

[Will Stanton]

The blob headed for the X-Men uniform...and then...stopped. Not like the sword, where it simply hadn't headed in that direction, possibly instinctively. It had started in that direction, and then...stopped.

It was as if it was pondering whether or not to even head in that direction...and then, for the first time, it shrank back, away from the uniform, heading more towards the punching bag.

Evidence of more conscious thought going on? That seemed to be backed up by the telepathic presence, which for the first time seemed to be giving coherent thoughts, if short and childlike...and still mega-sped up, from the coffee-and-computer base layer.

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Interesting. Perhaps the first conscious choice. Maybe we can refine that direction."

She pushes a button and while the blob is going for the punching bag the other seven rooms close and are replaced with new ones.

A pair of socks. A round target for bow and arrows made of hay and painted with red and white circles. A wooden statue of a butler holding a tray. A model car. A foldable multi-tool. A baseball mitt. A fancy silver hairbrush.

[Null]

Oh, the target went STRAIGHT away, as did the butler, car and multi-tool. The fancy-schmancy hairbrush was left entirely untouched, as was the baseball mitt. So much for ASHLIE's dreams of fielding a championship sporting team starring nine Wills in the field...or for that matter, of bringing baseball over to the UK to begin with.

"Ugh, this is absolutely pathetic," Will complained.

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Why do you care? It wants to be helpful. I distinctly remember you were quite upset when your existence as an oblivious but happy substance ended."

[Null]

"Because this is no way for anybody to live a life. If it's going to be concious and moving, it needs to be a god-damned person. If it wants to be an oblivious and happy substance, that's....you know, that's different.

Look, you wouldn't get it, OK?" Will said, dismayed.

[Ashlie Minamida]

"You're right, I don't. That's why I'm asking. Just like I'm asking it what it wants, in a round-about way."

[Null]

"Let me put it this way.

Could we install DOOM on you? My PC's running a bit slow. You wouldn't mind, would you?"

[Ashlie Minamida]

"You think it's undignified." she says after a moment of thinking it over.

[Null]

"And exceptionally so. I wasn't like this back home; it's the effects of this...this dystopian universe we find ourselves in that have corrupted him.

It is so ironic that it would be Miriam who would be my savior here. Her counterpart in my universe dehumanized me. Miriam stripped away all this...this baggage."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"I understand wanting to rid yourself of unwanted aspects of yourself. More than you might imagine. But it exists separately now and in ridding yourself of it you also rid yourself of the ability to make choices for it. Let it be apart from you and diverge. Don't look at it as a reminder of baggage you've already left behind. Let it go."

[Null]

"Then we need to rename it. So everyone knows it's not me."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"That would only be fair. And also seems to stress that you are very much laying claim to 'Will Stanton' then?"

[Null]

"That's who I am. I'm the one is, and wants to be, a person."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"I wasn't challenging it, simply confirming I need to present it with an additional choice at some point." Ashlie says. "I apologize, it's hard to convey the correct intent with very limited facial expressions."

[Null]

"Gotta get some face meats at some point. Maybe you can use it for that."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"A tempting suggestion. I would have to figure out an interface to make it worthwhile."

[Null]

"Heh. Reminds me -- OUR ASHLIE, who was just a computer program, stuck a wi-fi adapter in our head and used that to drive him around...for like, five minutes, once. There were some kind of issues at the time and she didn't continue on that path for very long."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Interesting. But possibly a frustrating experience. There's a reason I load the majority of my programs into this shell directly. Remote-controlling things feels... clumsy and awkward. Operating a very complex machine at several arms' lengths."

[Null]

"Eh, slap a floppy drive in there," Will shrugged. "I dunno, direct-wire him like a marionette. All the same to me."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"For specific applications like haptic signal resolution It likely beats anything I could put together."

"But first we should finish what we started. Let's see if it's ready to pick a name for itself." she says and turns her attention back to the interior of the Danger Room where the outside rooms close and a big pile of alphabet blocks manifests in the middle of the room. She pushes the intercom button and leans forward into the mic a little. "Seeing how you and your twin-of-sorts are shaping up to be two very distinct... beings, I think it would be appropriate if you chose a name for yourself, if you feel up to it yet."

[Will Stanton]

No hesitation.

W...I...L...L.

Well, I mean, that was pretty definitive, if not at all useful.

[Ashlie Minamida]

"There's no reason you both can't be Will." she says, still with the intercom open and addressing both of them. "But if you wish to establish yourselves as distinct then I would recommend against it.

[Will Stanton]

The blob responded by flinging the letter blocks at the screen. Very mature.