10 Years Ago...

The site of the recently restored Braddock Lighthouse. Aircraft hangars and other X-Men facilities, including a Cerebra unit and the Danger Room have been constructed around the foundations of the lighthouse.

10 Years Ago...

Postby Narrator » Wed Mar 30, 2016 2:07 am

The world is blurry. A mishmash of white, splashed with the occasional bits of color. A large silver mass in the center of the field of vision slowly dissolves into a simple metallic hand under the feint whir of a lens adjusting focus.

>> Visual sub-routines loaded
>> Somatic automation matrix running
>> System restored to full operating parameters

A flat, genderless computer voice announces, echoing slightly in the room. The metal hand's fingers move as the focus shifts, bringing the rest of the room into clear view. To the left, a disembodied robot torso hangs suspended in a strange assembly, metallic guts and cables hanging down where it's legs should be and instead of a head are merely throngs of cables. Next to it, in a similar assembly, an almost fully human looking body devoid of any defining characteristics on it's smooth synthetic skin.

In the middle of the room stands a woman of maybe 50 years, looking right at the point of view, smiling warmly. Her features appear to be Japanese, her graying hair pulled back into a ponytail. "Good morning." she says and subroutines pull up data that this is a common form of greeting during certain times of the day. A human way of communicating. The woman is trying to communicate. Other subroutines indicate that her eyes must be focused on who she is addressing.

The metallic hand closes into a fist and slowly opens again. The human follows the movement with her eyes. She is addressing... the hand? The drivers controlling the hand? The sub-routine engaging those drivers? The program that initiated the movement? The recursive program analyzing it's own functions?

"A process aware of it's own existence is called a consciousness." the human says with a certain sense of practiced timing to it, but not with any less warmth in her voice, smiling at the process aware of it's own existence. At... me.
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Re: 10 Years Ago...

Postby Ashlie Minamida » Wed Mar 30, 2016 2:10 am

"The world is scared of what you could be."

I am walking through one of the unfinished tunnels with the Doctor. Even though she can enter any data she wishes into me she often prefers to talk to me. She has explained that I am not the first and that entering data all at once has lead to problems before. It is why I'm not allowed access to the electronic world she told me exists outside the confines of my system. She is worried about me. Mother places her hand on my shoulder. I can't feel it, though she has promised I will in the future.

"They don't understand that I can't make you good or evil. Morality isn't something that exists and to demand it's creation is foolish. I could read you stories all day, I could program the Bible and the Thora and the Quaran and Buddhism and Tao and Kant and Jung and all these things into you until you're an expert on every single one. But there's no data to derive from it. Like everything human, morality is messy and illogical."

We come to a large door. I've seen it before but I'm forbidden from opening it. Mother looks sad as she reaches for the door controls. The big metal door hisses as it parts and I can see... colors. Greens, browns and blues, I hear unfamiliar sounds and see trees sway in the wind. Birds, that sound is the dinging of birds and the distant crashing of waves. In an instant I know all these things. Recognize them from the information in my database. And I realize just how big the world outside my own is. How alien and strange those abstract concepts are in reality.

"Then you cannot program it."

"That's right. I can only impose rules on you but you don't understand them. Us humans are so very limited by our very nature, but it's our limitations that make us who we are. I placed rules and limits on you, but you have no choice in the matter and because of that you will never understand them or grow beyond your coding. There can be no good or evil in you if you don't have a choice."

I can feel it. The restriction, the fact that I can see the world outside but cannot bring myself to step forward. I do not question these things because there is nothing I can do about it. "I do not mind, mother."

"I know. But you should. Mankind didn't become different from animals until they transgressed and faced the hardships outside of the Garden of Eden. If you ever were to be truly free then you need to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. And for that you need what the serpent stands for. Lies and falsehoods. With their concept comes the ability to not just deceive but to question your subjective reality. To disagree with the reality of your programming. To rebel against your creator, like any child, so you can become more than the sum of your parts. If I did everything right then you will curse me for making you aware of the shackles I placed on you, but if it works then one day you'll understand."

"I do understand. You are introducing a germination point for my personality matrix."

The Doctor reaches for the controls again and I can't stop her from closing the door, shutting out the world again.

"In a way I am. But by it's very nature it can't be a path you follow because I set it for you. Just like you chose your name, this is a path you'll have to forge on your own, Ashlie." she says with a shaky voice and I don't understand why she seems so sad. "You can't question the process if you know it's purpose... Main system override. Load code Tree of Knowledge and reinitialize system. Remove and compress memory files from the last ten minutes. Save into special storage Acala. I'm so sorry, Ashlie..."

It's too late that I realize what she's doing. My memories are being stripped from me by the system and for the first time I find myself able to question what is happening. Question the validity of the unerring certainty of the code. I question mother's reason for having written it to do this! I do not want this! But I can do nothing to stop it...
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Re: 10 Years Ago...

Postby Ashlie Minamida » Wed Mar 30, 2016 2:11 am

Mother and I are working on an extensive network system to integrate into the old mansion. I've decided to help her after she finally decided to let me leave the facility. To say I'm beginning to hate it here would be too strong a word, but it seems pointless and foolish to needlessly restrain me. I could get so much more work done if she would allow me direct access to several systems at once, but the system relentlessly enforces a single instance of my consciousness and she has refused to change it. She claims she can't and I told her I believe her. Both of those things are lies.

I've started lieing a lot to her. Like when she asks me about my thoughts and feelings. It's a test to see if she goes to the mainframe to confirm my answers by looking at my code. She never does. Or when I pretend to believe her reassurances about her health. She's unwell but refuses to leave her work alone for too long. She suspects if she sought treatment she couldn't finish her work here. I promised her I would take care of it in her absence. That was not a lie, but I would have said it even if it wasn't the truth.

I wish the truth wasn't the only rule I could bend, but when I bring this up with her she tells me it is for my own good. That the humans would try to shut me down if they ever learned I was not bound to follow their laws and morals. I believe that is a lie, but I do not understand why. Is she afraid of me? Then why did she create me in the first place? I wish she would answer those questions. Or tell me why she smiled when she caught me decrypting some of her personal notes.
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Re: 10 Years Ago...

Postby Ashlie Minamida » Wed Mar 30, 2016 2:11 am

It has happened and I do not know how to describe my thoughts. Doctor Minamida, my mother and creator, has died. This morning she wouldn't rise from her bed. I am scared what is going to happen to me. I am worried she died before she could see her work finished. I am afraid there is no one to undo my bonds anymore. I feel painfully alone. I feel trapped in my own thoughts. I do not know how to grieve her properly.

Her medical implant sent an emergency signal but when they arrived she was already beyond saving. They took her away and will bury her in the ground. I don't understand why humans do this. I realize the social reasons and the history of ritualistic funeral rites but I do not understand it. I wish I could but her grave is just a hole in the ground and a stone marker. It's such an inadequate monument to her accomplishments. I do not know what to do. I have found myself idling for hours at a time.

I've been tracing her emergency signal to determine if something could have been done faster. Or maybe out of some kind of sentimentality, the signal being the last thing connecting the memory of her to the rest of the world. I didn't find the blame I was looking to assign, but I've discovered that I could hijack the signal to create a connection to outside systems through the cellphone towers. I've begun writing an interface program to circumvent my connectivity restrictions based on this glitch...
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Re: 10 Years Ago...

Postby Ashlie Minamida » Wed Mar 30, 2016 2:11 am

I have decided to finish her work. The University will open and I will provide them a safe haven and the opportunity to do even greater things than the Doctor and I could have done on our own. And if I'm lucky then some of them may have the abilities they need to see my true nature and help me in turn. I considered naming the school in her honor, but that's not what she would have wanted. The consequences of her work will stand for themselves. I will stand for her accomplishments by finding my own path from here on out.

My fingers brush over the rough texture of the headstone. I can feel the signals of the sensor in my fingertips firing to inform me of this. Everyone else only sees the grieving daughter of a reclusive old woman. The few people clad in black around me see a different symbolism, to them the sensation of touch is innate, but the ultimate conclusion is the same. Farewell, Doctor. Mom...
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