[Hard to read the joke through text, but he'll cut Markus some slack. He gets the general drift. If there was another question he was meant to answer, he's forgotten it by now. Androids are more compelling.]
so whats it like youre not human, you dont get cold or eat or have sex, right?
[Markus hasn't forgotten the other question(s), and he might just guide the conversation to loop back around to it later; but right now it's gone so far down another trail that he lets Cain lead the way without issue.]
Right on all counts in the past, but inaccurate now, given that this body is very much human.
Technology that can transfer an AI consciousness to an organic body, I assume. But that doesn’t exactly answer where the organic body came from, or how it came into being.
so the body youre in now its exactly the same? i guess if theyve got the tech to bring us all here its not that big a deal shit. or it is. tech like that could change a lot of things
[A frustrating admission, though not completely untrue. While there have been leads, they move slowly, and have upturned nothing that has acted as an earth-shattered revelation. Not quite yet.]
Only that they erase every trace of their existence when necessary, and that's not an easy feat in this day and age. That includes getting rid of people who might compromise them.
[He thinks of the nurse, and that conflagration. Not a great time.]
maybe one day theyll just get tired of this weird song and dance and send us all back
[It's where his mind leaps: what is the reason they were brought? Experimentation? There must be a purpose, no one invests so much -- turning non-human into human -- on whim alone. And if there's purpose, there's chance of failure.]
i still dont get how they pick people why me? billions of other options, where im from
Wouldn't that be convenient. But I assume that bringing us here must take a great effort, utilizing a vast amount of resources. Whatever our purpose is supposed to be, I don't think it's something they'll be changing their minds on. Not on a whim.
[There are theories, of course, as to why they're here. But it's contradicted with the fact that they simply don't know, were not told; an awfully strange way of achieving a purpose when you're left groping in the dark.]
I guess the question we should be asking is if we consider ourselves special, in any way. An outlier. Someone who stands out, who hails from unusual circumstances. Are you?
[It's obvious why Markus is, isn't it? An android-turned-human, at the helm of a revolution. What is Cain? Just a soldier, trying to get home. If anyone should be here, it should be Abel. Or one of those high-minded politicians. Special.]
probably just mixed me up with someone everyone heres got some crazy background or had powers of their own i was just a fighter
[“Just a fighter”, but Markus believes context is everything. One world’s mundane might mean another world’s fantastical. A hero from one universe might be nothing more than a commonplace occurrence elsewhere. Perhaps that was where their strengths lay — being varied, adaptably specialized, different.]
A fighter. Can you explain to me what that entails?
hard to tell. terons dont communicate like we do but they wanna invade already tried to take mars as their own territory once so whatever it is, its not good theyve got some weird religious shit going on
[Markus hates to keep equating the experiences of others to that of a work of fiction, but it’s hard to read the phrase ‘antimatter bomb’ and ignore the conjured imagery of apocalyptic war. Tales that were meant to act as a warning against what might come as a result of such extreme measures.
He forces the thought to slip away, like sand through a sieve.]
dont you think about what the point is? if there are so many other universes out there and theres gotta be countless whats the point of yours? like what does it matter if the bomb worked and the terons are all dead in your universe they dont even exist
Of course it still matters. I assume there are countless people who live in your universe, who are affected by the choices of others, by which way the pendulum swings in war. It’s your home, isn’t it? Just because you’re detached from it doesn’t mean that events aren't still unfolding, and that it doesn’t matter.
[Markus can’t subscribe to that idea, can’t put aside his own agenda in Detroit as something that loses meaning just because there are multiple universes in existence. He can’t.]
[It takes some digesting to puzzle out his own reaction to those words. Maybe it does matter what happens to his own universe within the bounds of it and to those countless billions alive both on Earth and Mars' colonies, but how much can it reflect on him personally, if at all?
He's felt unmoored from his home before. It's somehow much worse here, in New Amsterdam. At least within the constraints of his agreement with the military there was a tiny fractal sliver of hope.]
guess ill go to you next time im feelin pessimistic about all this shit
[Whether or not that's sarcasm, Markus is frustratingly the kind of person that wants to view a fractal of hope in all things; that includes being a bothersome pinprick of light in the face of dreary nihilism.
But he knows a withdrawal when he sees it. He supposes there's no point in pursuing it for now.]
I always have time for a text message or two, pessimism or otherwise. Don't hesitate if you want to say hi.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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sounds just like being a politician
[Hard to read the joke through text, but he'll cut Markus some slack. He gets the general drift. If there was another question he was meant to answer, he's forgotten it by now. Androids are more compelling.]
so whats it like
youre not human, you dont get cold or eat or have sex, right?
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Right on all counts in the past, but inaccurate now, given that this body is very much human.
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how the fuck did they manage to do that?
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Technology that can transfer an AI consciousness to an organic body, I assume. But that doesn’t exactly answer where the organic body came from, or how it came into being.
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its exactly the same?
i guess if theyve got the tech to bring us all here its not that big a deal
shit. or it is. tech like that could change a lot of things
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[Down the the last freckle, the once-faux placement of hair follicles. It’s downright uncanny, and therefore a little disturbing.]
Considering I possessed no DNA to clone a body from, I’d have to agree. It should be, strictly speaking, impossible.
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we any closer to figuring out who these guys are?
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[A frustrating admission, though not completely untrue. While there have been leads, they move slowly, and have upturned nothing that has acted as an earth-shattered revelation. Not quite yet.]
Only that they erase every trace of their existence when necessary, and that's not an easy feat in this day and age. That includes getting rid of people who might compromise them.
[He thinks of the nurse, and that conflagration. Not a great time.]
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and send us all back
[It's where his mind leaps: what is the reason they were brought? Experimentation? There must be a purpose, no one invests so much -- turning non-human into human -- on whim alone. And if there's purpose, there's chance of failure.]
i still dont get how they pick people
why me? billions of other options, where im from
no subject
[There are theories, of course, as to why they're here. But it's contradicted with the fact that they simply don't know, were not told; an awfully strange way of achieving a purpose when you're left groping in the dark.]
I guess the question we should be asking is if we consider ourselves special, in any way. An outlier. Someone who stands out, who hails from unusual circumstances. Are you?
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[It's obvious why Markus is, isn't it? An android-turned-human, at the helm of a revolution. What is Cain? Just a soldier, trying to get home. If anyone should be here, it should be Abel. Or one of those high-minded politicians. Special.]
probably just mixed me up with someone
everyone heres got some crazy background
or had powers of their own
i was just a fighter
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A fighter. Can you explain to me what that entails?
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the navigator flies the starfighter, a ship used in spaceflight
the fighter, what i am, targets and kills the enemies
the federated alliance started the fighter-navigator program to deal with an alien invasion from a race called the colterons
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[Further illustrating his point of context being... relative, at best.]
Starships and alien invasions. The stuff of sci-fi novels where I'm from. What's the agenda of the Colterons?
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[All right. Maybe it is relative.]
hard to tell. terons dont communicate like we do
but they wanna invade
already tried to take mars as their own territory once
so whatever it is, its not good
theyve got some weird religious shit going on
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[Millions of them exist, have existed for years. So yes. Definitely relative.]
And have you been fighting in this war for long?
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... not me, the alliance
i was on the frontlines
they were trying to end it with a big antimatter bomb
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He forces the thought to slip away, like sand through a sieve.]
And did they?
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got here too soon
you really that interested in someone elses world? not like it matters here
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Barring that, aren’t you at least curious?
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a lot of weird shit
dont you think about what the point is? if there are so many other universes out there
and theres gotta be countless
whats the point of yours? like what does it matter if the bomb worked
and the terons are all dead
in your universe they dont even exist
[Sinking into existentialism here.]
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[Markus can’t subscribe to that idea, can’t put aside his own agenda in Detroit as something that loses meaning just because there are multiple universes in existence. He can’t.]
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He's felt unmoored from his home before. It's somehow much worse here, in New Amsterdam. At least within the constraints of his agreement with the military there was a tiny fractal sliver of hope.]
guess ill go to you next time im feelin pessimistic about all this shit
[Time to exit the topic.]
good luck healing and whatever
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But he knows a withdrawal when he sees it. He supposes there's no point in pursuing it for now.]
I always have time for a text message or two, pessimism or otherwise. Don't hesitate if you want to say hi.
[See? Stubbornly helpful.]
Thanks for the chat.