[video]

[steelandtemper]

[What has no thumbs and is sick to death of gods and sorcerers and magic spears and all the similar crap that keeps popping up? This AI.

Well, actually, her hologram has thumbs, but they're currently not visible behind the equally holographic folded arms.]

Poll: how many of you are from universes where the supernatural is real? Magic, gods, shoe-making elves that aren't just a parable about virtue, whatever.

[Why Grimm's Fairy Tales? Why not Grimm's Fairy Tales? It's all equally nonsense as far as thorough-going materialist Cortana is concerned.]

Comments

[calibrates_big_guns]

Ancient, genocidal bio-machines with delusions of godhood, but actual gods ...? Not so much.

[A beat before he adds:]

At least none that actually walk around. People still have religious beliefs, but that's another story.

[steelandtemper]

Technology so advanced people give up and call it magic doesn't count.

[Religion doesn't count any more than people believing they have a system to win at slots does.]

[calibrates_big_guns]

You'd hate the Hanar.

[steelandtemper]

I hate a lot of things.

[So yeah, probably.]

[calibrates_big_guns]

[That gets a chuckle.]

They worship the Protheans - another alien race that went extinct about fifty thousand years back.

They're big on proselytizing too. Not necessarily pushy about it, but they are persistent.

[steelandtemper]

[Cortana doesn't actually have facial muscles or involuntary responses, which is the only reason her eye doesn't twitch.]

You know what the people who worship an extinct species back home did? Release an omnicidal parasite and then almost wipe out everything with a nervous system. Because they did a bad job translating one lousy character, built a religion around it, and refused to listen to disconfirming evidence.

[Fuck the hanar. You know, just on principle. Since she's never met or even seen one.]

[calibrates_big_guns]

[Blink. Blink blink.]

That's ... [A whole lot more extreme?] ... the hanar sort of draw the line at 'annoying guys in the town square handing out pamphlets.'

[steelandtemper]

Oh, they also tried to wipe out humanity on religious grounds.

[She didn't include that in her first rant because it's not rock-stupid, just a war crime.]

Your guys sound kinda bush-league.

[calibrates_big_guns]

They are. And I'm increasingly grateful for that.