Baby lately the plans we're making

[headandhand]

WHO: Open to all Dualizens
WHAT: Your regularly scheduled NAPs event for the month
WHERE: Our Crazy Jane's Gallows!
WHEN: January 7-10
WARNINGS: Please use these if applicable!

Look at all of these bright, shining new faces! There’s even a few less bright, less shining faces - maybe even a few folks without faces - but hey, this city welcomes all types. Chances are, if you’ve just arrived, you're seeing some pretty crazy things, unless you're used to an eye-blinding amount of neon, robots, weird-ass technology, magic, and an omnipresent police force...and hey, if you are, congrats, you're gonna settle in just fine! But for the rest of you, the Head knows this is gonna be pretty overwhelming, right?

Well, since your quaint individual processing units are probably having a hard time, why not link up with another one? By which the Head means...

Hello, new citizens of Dualis,
and welcome to your monthly Network Adjacency Protocol~!


NAPs are a monthly community networking event similar to the Earth concept of speed dating. Two citizens (new arrivals and old hands alike) are placed at a table together with a handy cue card of queries to help break the proverbial ice. Ask (possibly invasive) personal questions and receive results - or ignore the card and yeet yourself straight into a brand new friendship, whatever works! But don't be too shy - you've only got ten minutes together, and if you just sit in silence for the whole ten, the Network Admins are likely to come supervise and try to repair the uplink through a mild shock to the ol' central nervous system. You might find yourself saying all sorts of unintended facts about yourself if that happens...probably better to just make friends, right? Who doesn’t like friends?!

Upon arrival, most will be ushered in by the Admins into the Gallery. Just ignore that large painting on the graffiti wall. Once inside you can begin to mingle and meet your fellow Dualizens, the city has also provided box wine, crackers and cheese as refreshments, a lovely Charcuterie spread laid out for any to sample while looking at the art and mingling.

This month there are two other lovely items for your amusement or horror! First off is a Karaoke machine, how the hell did they pull off getting every song you can think of with lyrics to all? Though, nearly every foul word is replaced with the sound a goose honking, have fun with that! Also, along with your normal note cards of questions you will find blank paper and kiddie packs of crayons. Make some art and leave it behind or leave it for your new friend!

Comments

[notalive]

At first he thinks he's seeing an android from home - a glimpse of silver at the other end of the room, between the bodies of people appreciating the art. An android from home who's decided to cast off the humanlike shell completely, showing themselves to the world as they are.

Eventually he realises that no, it can't be. This one has no LED, a different shape and structure - and hair built into the chassis. This is another kind of AI.

That's even more interesting.

The crowd shifts gently in such a way that he eventually does end up right next to her, and it's only then that he notices the stares - notices them because even though he was used to enmity, even outright hostility, back in Detroit, here he's gotten used to being seen as just another human.

But it looks like he's been shielded up until now by not looking too abnormal.

"I've never met an AI who wasn't an android like me before," he says...but then immediately corrects himself. "That had a body, that is. And I don't count the Iterations as AI."

And he's never met the Head. Look, he was trying to break the ice here.

"I'm Connor."

[mobilityassistance]

EDI is ignoring most of the people around her, trying to keep to herself as much as possible and not provoke anything--she can't say for certain whether that would actually happen, but with some of the glares she's getting, she would certainly not put it past the organics surrounding her. Being outnumbered is nothing new to her, but she had some measure of protection before. This place is an entirely new unknown.

It's not until he speaks that she even turns her head to look at him and finding what appears to be a human for all intents and purposes. "Like him" is almost a shock--if she could really be shocked. Another stealth unit, maybe? Or something else? Perhaps synthetics are supposed to blend in around here and that's why she's been getting such hostility for simply being there? She should have gotten her synthetic skin repaired after all, though that would likely have meant going back to Ceberus, and that was not going to happen.

"Most of my systems are housed aboard the Normandy, however I recently acquired use of this remote frame which has allowed a greater opportunity to explore. Most places are not prepared for a stealth frigate on their streets." Haha. She has some good jokes, right?

"Hello, Connor. My official designation is Enhanced Defense Intelligence, however most find it simpler to refer to me as EDI."

[notalive]

The circle of light on Connor's temple could be anything, so most people interpret it any way they like. Even then, Connor looks so human that even telling others that he's an android doesn't really change much. He's not scary. He's not too different.

He didn't really appreciate that until now.

"The... USS Normandy?" Is there such a ship? Is it a stealth frigate? (Wait, why would a ship ever be parked on a street) Connor didn't exactly have any reason to look up navy designations. But the accent is American. "I don't know much about the military, I'm afraid.

"But if we're sharing official designations, I'm technically an RK800 model detective prototype. I have a serial number, but I won't bore you with it."

It was emblazoned on the front of the uniform jacket he still has in his closet, although the check shirt under a sweater look he's rocking right now definitely is definitely less 'detective android' and more 'hipster coffee shop'.

"People here are used to cybernetics," he says a little hesitantly, less confidently - his whole posture changes a little, something more fidgety and far less cool and collected. "They're used to people that look like me, or with a synthetic arm or something. But the only fully synthetic things they see much of are the Iterations. The simple robots in charge of keeping the peace. And no one wants to see the Iterations."

Not that anybody things EDI is an Iteration. But maybe the association is there nonetheless. Subconsciously. Does it excuse the weight of disapproval Connor can feel by mere association? No. But maybe having it explained helps.

[mobilityassistance]

"No, the ship is the SSV Normandy. It is currently the Alliance's most advanced stealth ship." She must be in a real backwater if he doesn't know what the Alliance is. Or the Normandy itself, but that was slightly more understandable. Still, the ship is famous, and the other android's responses are giving her more and more questions and even more concerns.

The whole thing should be impossible, but here she is, in a new place where she shouldn't be having a discussion she shouldn't be having with a person she shouldn't be meeting. There are any number of theories to explain it, but as far as she knew (and she knew quite a bit) none of them had been physically proven.

Maybe she'll have to publish a paper when she gets back. If the galaxy is still there.

"Why would they not wish to see these Iterations?" And how much danger is she in if she looks like them--even superficially?

[notalive]

The more EDI talks, the more confused Connor gets - and now he’s definitely not so sure she’s a military AI from any reality resembling his own. Connor may not have in-depth knowledge of world politics, but he knows the major players (and he had a habit of picking up and reading discarded magazines back home - it was the only tiny taste of the world outside of crime scenes he ever got). And he doesn’t know of an Alliance.

“What year is it?” he asks, and, to keep her from having to wonder why he’s asking such a weird question, “Because it was November 2038 when I came here.” He purses his lips in thought. “Actually, it was November 2038 when my partner got here too, but he was here a full month before me. Time doesn’t make much sense here.”

Nothing does - but let’s start with time and move on from there.

“The Iterations are law enforcement, but not the same kind as the police,” he explains, in a voice too low for human ears to pick up over the general bustle of voices. Anything monitoring them will have a hard time listening. And if the chips in their heads are monitoring them… Well, then the Head knows things that makes Connor wonder why he’s not dead already. “The police take care of normal law enforcement - traffic cops like me, detectives like my partner. The Iterations keep the peace. If someone causes a disruption, the Iterations will come and tase them into submission. If someone is committing subversive acts a little too often and the Head notice...the Iterations come and take them away.”

He stares straight ahead like he’s appreciating Jane’s artwork, but without really seeing it at all.

“I don't think anyone thinks you're one of them...” he says, head tilted in thought. "But they see somebody who's clearly synthetic and...react."

He wants to say it's a very organic reaction, but as a deviant, it's the kind of irrationality Connor isn't above anymore.

[mobilityassistance]

"Time doesn't make much sense" is concerning and confusing all at once, and it is not a feeling EDI enjoys. She's certainly not unaccustomed to being confused, but usually it's about feelings. Or organics. Or Shepard's life choices. And not about simple questions like "what year is it." Or "how does time work."

Although, really, it's a fascinating phenomenon that no one has ever really had a chance to study. All the advances in galactic technology, and no one had yet discovered how to travel through time. And apparently, she'd managed it without even realizing it. Assuming she can get back, it would be groundbreaking information to bring back with her.

"The year is 2186 CE." She says it like it's the most obvious fact in the world. To her it is. It couldn't possibly be anything else, even when it obviously was.

She listens carefully, though--that is more information she'll need to keep herself safe. And hearing it she can understand why she's received a less-than-warm welcome. It's not the ideal situation, but at least she knows why.

"Is such surveillance necessary?"

[notalive]

Connor's double-take is very subtle, but someone like EDI is almost sure to catch it. 2186. He should be used to this sort of thing by now, and usually he is, but something about the future seems...exciting.

If they get back, he could live to see 2186.

(Hank won't, and that realisation makes him immediately shelve that line of thought until a time when he's more ready and equipped to go along it.)

"Surveillance is a pretty big part of what keeps a police state running," he says, then, in a normal speaking voice like they're just having a normal conversation about allowed topics, "So when you mentioned your ship before... Did you mean a spaceship?"

[mobilityassistance]

Oh, she knows all about police-states, even if her creators weren't exactly a "state." They certainly hard enough to be, and she had no doubt that they would have installed similarly rigorous security had they won. They did have to be in control, after all. She could certainly imagine how irked the Illusive Man had been when he'd heard she'd abandoned ship, so to speak, and thrown in with the Normandy crew. She liked them better, anyway.

She doesn't respond to that, though. No need to tempt fate, and she's got most of the information she needs from that sentence alone.

"Yes. The Normandy is a state of the art Alliance space-faring vessel built on a modified Turian design. It was initially commissioned as part of a peace effort with the Turians to show cooperation."

[notalive]

He knows some humans would disagree Connor has ever experienced a police state. In fact, a lot of androids would too - even if someone were to concede that the abuses and trauma and control inflicted upon androids by society constituted a police state (and not simply the ownership of objects), Connor helped inflict that trauma. He was complicit.

And that's something he just has to quietly live with now, forced into it himself or not.

"Turian?" he asks. His LED, previously slowly and calmly pulsing in blue circles, speeds up some. "Is that an alien race? Did you work with them?"

He doesn't bother masking his pure fascination with this whole concept. Living and working with aliens. Making peace with alien people.

Maybe there's hope after all.

[mobilityassistance]

"It is. I have had the opportunity to work closely with several Turians. They can be quite agreeable." They can also be vicious, but so can anyone, really. Turians are just very good at it.

She would say she's grateful she doesn't glow, but she is also very well aware that she is obvious in other ways. Being entirely metal does that. And she doesn't have a whole lot of options for cover stories. If only Joker were here. Maybe someone else had some ideas, though she's definitely wary of asking. There's no telling yet who's trustworthy.

[notalive]

"I've talked to a lot of people here about their worlds," he says thoughtfully. "Their universes, rather, not alien planets - a lot of them come from what seems to be Earth, but an Earth where history or biology developed differently somehow. One I heard about recently was where the Nazis won World War II. Things like that.

"But what a lot of them have in common is that nothing ever seems to be going well. So, in a world where some humans have evolved special abilities, humans without those abilities persecute them. In another, they have to keep themselves hidden to avoid exactly that happening. A lot of others are in wars, or dealing with slavery or oppression."

... And then he comes back to himself a little.

"Not to sound depressing. I just meant I'm glad to hear that someone has a positive experience of dealing with people who aren't like them."

[mobilityassistance]

So now does she ruin his hopefulness and add herself to the list? Because "not well" is certainly an understatement as far as the state of the galaxy and Earth in particular.

"Intergalactic relations were not so smooth to begin with. Humanity's first experiences with the Mass Relays led to the First Contact War .with the Turians, though the animosity has settled." That's usually how things went, though, wasn't it? There's always a war.