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[hallaifyouherd]

I greet you, my fellow Legionnaires.

[ The image accompanying said greeting is that of a young woman with pointed ears and tattoos across the upper part of her face, peering inquisitively into the camera. She thinks she's got this broadcast option thing down. ]

In case we haven't met? My name is Marjara.

[ Her lips quirk upwards, before her expression grows a little more somber. ]

I've been thinking something through. And I think I know what I want to do. But a little experience from other people who might have gone through similar circumstances would help. I think.

[ She's not going to ask them to choose for her. Gods knew she'd never let someone make her mind up for her before now, and she wasn't about to start...but learning about the shift? The consequences? The little things that came along with it that you might not initially think about? Might be worth the time to ask. ]

Have any of you lost a part of you, a limb or...something else of similar importance, and chose to have it replaced? Would you be willing to speak of what it was like for you?

If not, I still thank you for your time.

Comments

[whyarewehere]

[ Before joining the Legion, Grif would've immediately snapped to "yes". Mostly because his entire interaction with actual robots had been Lopez (as far as he knew). But now he's been here, and not every robot is terrible, Babbage is an okay dude, and then there was that whole thing with Lenny's head, and...

Shit. ]

It's at least sixty-forty.

[ Is that fair? ]

Nah.

Eighty-twenty.

[ Better. Definitely fair and accurate. ]

[hallaifyouherd]

Right.

[ Okay, so this guy is clearly just an asshole, then. ]

Alright, leaving aside whatever you've got against robots in general, you're saying they're not halfbreeds.

[whyarewehere]

Right.

They're just people who got some robot parts put in. I think there's a certain amount robot you gotta be before you count, though.

[ He just sails cheerfully along through the conversation, neither realizing nor caring that being an ass can change people's opinion of you. ]

[hallaifyouherd]

[ That just earns her a slightly confused look. She appears to puzzle this over for a moment. ]

So robots can be sentient. But not always. And at some point having enough robot parts attached to you makes you something other than human?

[ She's just trying to make sure she understands this. ]

[whyarewehere]

Yeah. You start off with a metal leg and a cyber eyeball and then if you keep going, bam. One day you're RoboCop.

[ He lays all the wisdom of the cyberpunk genre at her feet. ]

[hallaifyouherd]

At what point do the robots become sentient? Could a man with enough robot also gain that awareness as well? How does he decide which race he belongs to?

[ The can of worms you have opened, Grif. ]

[steelandtemper]

Ignore Grif. He's an idiot.

[Hi, this is Cortana's version of an introduction.

She's using her hologram rather than her robot body right now.]

[hallaifyouherd]

I wish I could say I was surprised.

[ Though now she's taking the time to take her in, shimmering blue and all. ]

You are...beautiful. May I ask your name?

[steelandtemper]

[Flattery will get you...well, much farther than Cortana will admit, and she smiles.]

I'm Cortana.

[hallaifyouherd]

It's very nice to meet you.

You were talking to him about robots and computers. Are you...I mean, I don't want to assume. I've never seen anything quite like you before.

[steelandtemper]

Nice to meet you, too. I'm an artificial intelligence...a self-aware computer.

[Not quite, but it's close enough for a 101 talk with a fantasy elf.]

[whyarewehere]

Rude.

[steelandtemper]

Accurate.

[Mature Legionnaires behaving maturely.]

[whyarewehere]

Apology accepted.

[ Grif, she wasn't agreeing with you. ]

[whyarewehere]

Those are kinda personal questions, I think.

Tell you what, I'll ask my cyborg buddy next time I see him.

[hallaifyouherd]

Very well.

[googledox]

If you're willing to make such disparaging remarks about machine-based lifeforms, you must surely have a source for that statistic.

[whyarewehere]

"Most robots are dicks" is a statistic.

[ Grif thinks it's all hilarious. ]

[googledox]

Ah, a statistic like "most humans are simpleminded"? Because if we're going to start casually hurling around speciesist invectives, I'm afraid humanity doesn't exactly have the high ground.

[whyarewehere]

Just because we're dicks too doesn't make me wrong.

[googledox]

It's not so much that you're "dicks" as speciesism is a dangerous double-edged sword to wield ideologically when, by most possible metrics, humanity is resoundingly mediocre.

Trust me, you wouldn't feel that the attitude you're displaying was socially acceptable if the species around you started displaying it towards humans, too.

[superscholar]

It's not.

[ The term 'filthy monkey' comes to mind. ]

Screened to Brainy

[whyarewehere]

[ Something's wrong. Grif's terrible at reading the temperature on a conversation, but even he is starting to figure out this isn't going the way he thinks it should.

Maybe he needs to do something here.

Grif has to debate over it for a minute or two. Despite himself and his sheer stubbornness, he has learned a couple of things since he first came through at Phelolu.

This is not the solution he wants to something that he's sure shouldn't have been a problem, and it's not at all comfortable. But he'll try talking about it. ]

Brainy.

You don't think I'm serious, right?

permascreened

[googledox]

It doesn't matter if you are or aren't.

The Roboticans face disparaging remarks and accusations of being "evil robots" on a continual basis, largely because of events that were outside of their control.

Much like I faced a relentless barrage of insults and accusations over my supposed responsibility for half of the Legion going missing.

If someone were to talk about how I'm a secret supervillain, attempting to put everyone around me in my thrall, would it matter if they were joking?

[whyarewehere]

[ Grif sighs. Heavily. He doesn't exactly answer, but that act alone is an admission that he can't think of a good counter argument. ]

God, I almost miss nobody listening to me.

[ Acknowledging that words can hurt people means that he has to be responsible for them, and being responsible for things is the actual worst thing in the world. ]