lifenet | Stones of farspeech; within a day of the intro log

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Stones of farspeech; within a day of the intro log

This is very sudden, and perhaps badly timed, for which I apologise.

[He really hopes he's not wasting the time of people trapped in rockslides or something, but--well, he would also hope someone trapped in a rock slide would be focusing on that and not. This.]

But I've just... returned to this place after a long absence and I've been informed there are other robots here now?

Is this true?

My name is Epsilon, and I am--was? Am. A robot myself.

So if anyone who can hear me has any kind of AI, or a similar form of existence... at your convenience, I'd like to speak with you! It's been a long time since I've known any others.

.... also, if you do need help, Ginko and I are able to move a great deal of earth between us, so please say something.

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Your name is...Epsilon.

[Oh, boy. That's not going to get horribly confusing any time soon.]

Yes.

Is there a problem?

No. No, no, no problem. Christ, this is going to get confusing. Just - word of warning. [It's clear that this is Not Fine due to how vehemently Wash tries to smooth that over, but he just keeps talking.]

There's someone by that name from...where I come from. Someone else.

[Yeah, he really lost the chance to pass this off as fine and normal after the second repetition of the word 'no.']

I take it you're not a fan.

It's complicated.

[THAT IS THE SHORT VERSION.]

I just don't want anyone I know jumping down your throat because you have the same name.

.... I see.

[More or less.]

I might need the long version, if you have the time.

But either way, having people 'jump down my throat' for something I haven't done is practically normal.

[He says this so it's obvious he's making a joke.

The joke itself is not going to land for a total stranger, but the telling of a joke can defuse tension simply by virtue of being a joke.

Or it can piss people off. Either way, Epsilon learns something about the situation.]

[The joke is...beyond him, and Wash sounds like someone gearing up for the mental plunge into a topic he doesn't want to broach, which is exactly what he is, in a sense.]

I'm going to regret asking this, but in what way?

No, it's not that exciting.

[Epsilon doesn't laugh, because it isn't a laughing matter... but there's a dormant element of humour in the situation. It's an extremely superficial one, but it's there.]

I refused to participate in a war... or much of its aftermath. It was an unpopular decision.

[He does not include the part where he also refused to kill the aftermath of that war when it came to him filled with grief, and in (not) doing so may have caused further tragedy.]

I'm rather practised at finding myself defined by who I'm not and what I haven't done.

[Silence on Wash's end.]

[Protesting a war is enough to get you pretty unpopular, when the friction is deep-seated and far-reaching, embroiling the entirety of several galaxies of conscious life in an ongoing conflict without any seeming end. He'd understand why people would react...poorly to that. To someone with the power to fight refusing to, to make some moral point.]

[He also understands someone who wouldn't want to get involved in the first place.]

That sounds like a difficult situation.

[A...diplomatic response. Truly the sort of thing you'd say when you don't have all the context and know it.]

Well, no wars here.

That was very tactful of you.

[It's not a statement of judgment. It might even be a compliment.]

And... no, thankfully. Plenty of other strife, I'm aware... but tragedy is less of a certainty.

[A pause.]

Your turn, if you don't mind. Who is 'Epsilon' to you?

[Oh. Right.]

[One honest answer deserves another. Assuming that the answer given was honest...which Wash isn't about to assume, because of who he is as a person.]

Someone I knew back home. Artificial intelligence. Long story, but he wasn't...around, last I checked. But people who are dead tend to come back sometimes, [both where he's from and here, not that he specifies,] so it pays to make sure.

[Epsilon can't lie to you, Washington.]

I'm familiar.

[It's a bit dry--he's had experience with death's impermanence.]

Any word on what kind of expectations I won't be living up to?

I don't think it'll come to that.

[Epsilon was...complicated.]

Anyone who hears you - I mean, you don't sound very much like a fragment of an Artificial Intelligence that may or may not be walking around in a robot exoskeleton to me.

[Hmmmm.

He doesn't like the way you said that.]

I am an intact Artificial Intelligence walking around in a unique robot body that was transformed into a tree.

It...what?

[SLOW DOWN, WHAT.]

It transformed into a tree?

Yes.

I'm currently a rainbow eucalyptus, and have been for some time.

[Dry, again.]

Before that, I contained enough power to be classified as a weapon of mass destruction.

[His tone is not one of pride, but something terse and tense.

A pause. Then, more gently--]

This is why my objection to the war was a big deal.

[He's still not clear on the...transforming into a tree thing. tbh.]

Yeah, well, most military A.I. are. I'm guessing your world doesn't have any real rights protecting those A.I. Or, if they do, they're easy to circumvent.

Robot rights have been written into law and adopted by most countries across the globe. Whether those laws are adequate, especially in light of the fact that the United States of Thracia has refused to sign the legislation... is not a conversation I think we're equipped to have.

[No offence. He's just aware that the politics of his earth aren't straightforward or small, as conversations go.]

Regardless, I was not designed intended for military purposes.

And robots that possess the power to act as weapons of mass destruction have been illegal for several years since my creation.

[This is all a lot of words that don't actually matter any more. He starts to sound tired.]

My point is... what I sound like may not resemble the Epsilon you know, but I may not be as different as you hope or assume. If your problem is with AI, then I am not the robot you want to be speaking to.

[The AI... in a tree.

Epsilon may have missed the actual point of confusion because of perceived anti-robot sentiments.]

My problem isn't with A.I.

[He's not about to clear up that confusion with any anecdotes or clarifications - that he's given just about everything he is on the behalf of A.I., in the memory of one A.I. that was tortured and sheared apart to fuel one powerful man's grief.]

[United States of Thracia. Sounds like a radically different world.]

[But he's not about to say that. It's not relevant, and those secrets aren't his to divulge to just anyone.]

I'm just not clear on how you turned into a tree.

[Truthfully, examples would not have helped. They wouldn't have hurt, either. Epsilon tentatively takes people at their word, but the truth is that even the humans who trusted him with the care of two dozen orphaned children held prejudices that reared their heads with tiresome regularity.

Like the belief that a robot could never replace a 'real' parent or family.

At the very least he can answer this man's questions... albeit not very well, because the answers are vague for him, too.]

I am not entirely clear on that either.

The short answer is 'magic' attributed to a god, but I was destroyed while still on my home earth before even that, so the facts are something I have to accept without especially understanding them.

[He was also, very briefly, rendered 'human,' but that is not an experience he knows how to process, so he's going to omit it here.]

Have you met a man named Ginko, or Edward? They experienced the same transformation, but were human to begin with. I don't believe they were previously deceased, either.

Can't say I have.

[But he keeps to himself, for the most part. He's probably seen them here and there - they're hard to miss - just hasn't spoken to them enough to know their names.]

Also can't say that sounds like any kind of standard science, but I'm not going to ask for this place, or any other place, to start making logical sense.

It is very unscientific.

[Is that a sense of humour? Yes.]

At the very least, I can assure you this was a peninsula, separate from the islands we inhabit and visit here. So your odds of becoming a magical horse or sentient tree are fairly low.

Thank god.

[About as deadpan as he can manage it.]

Sorry for any confusion. It was important enough that I had to check. And...uh, it might get confusing for almost everyone else from home. If you haven't been yelled at about the name already.

I am... experiencing that, yes.

[He didn't know it was possible for this rock to 'blow up,' proverbially speaking, but... it kind of is.]

On that note, may I have your name? For future reference.

Agent Washington.

[Usually he just goes with "Washington," but he probably owes the guy his full title, considering the grief this unfortunate association is going to start giving him.]

Just Washington is fine.

Stones of farspeech; within a day of the intro log

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