auroraexpress | (no subject)

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Who: Everyone
When: Day 45, early afternoon
Where: Everywhere

[ You've had your time to exchange candy and spooky stories, and the game has come to an end! Everyone who took part received a bag of candy to take to their train, as a bonus reward for the entertainment. Shortly before the game setting can fade away, Finn's going to declare the winners:

Thyme, Senna, Jasmine, and Clover ]

Aaand that's a wrap. With any luck, you guys had some actual fun. Don't forget to brush your teeth and, huh ... enjoy the candy?

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[He wants to say burying it forever and a day is best for him, but yeah, he knows that's bullshit. It's easier.]

[It's a lot easier.]

[But he's talked to enough people who don't deal with their shit to know that's not what's going to be right for him in the long run.]

Yeah.

You know, I have no idea what to make of Church. Or Epsilon, I guess? He sounds like Church and Caboose acted like Epsilon and Church were the same, but it was also Caboose saying that....

[Let's talk about Church being weird, that's safe.]

[ Everyone copes and deals differently, but ... yeah, maybe actually dealing, eventually, is better than burying it until you don't feel anymore. ]

[ Maybe. ]

To be fair, it's hard to know what to make of any of your friends.

[ And him. Kind of. ]

True. They're a very odd group of people. But honestly, I was starting to think Church was a ghost and now there's an AI with his voice and like....is that him. Is that not him.

Was the one people called Church actually a ghost who died having an AI made from him.

It could be either and I'd believe it.

Can AI have brothers? Maybe it's a twin.

[ #gosholife ]

....well, Theta and Delta did say they had siblings.

Now what that means, I don't know. Maybe the same lead scientist. Or maybe they used the same person's flashclone? Or sibling flashclones? Intelligence can be genetic, so siblings could all in theory be smart enough.

[Actually, does this mean Church IS connected to Project Freelancer? Are the Reds and Blues?]

I ... guess ...

Maybe they were both made from the same clone? Maybe? That could account for why they sound the same.

The same clone is...unlikely.

Smart AI's need to copy a human mind to be created. But being able to take that deep a copy kills the brain. Flash clones can be used to do it, though it's a toss up if an AI is created that way. It's why Smart AI's are limited, that gets really ethically questionable really fast.

So just more likely the same person cloned.

Wait, but ... if being copied like that kills the brain, how would they get two flash clones to begin with?

Flash cloning is the process of making a clone and accelerating the age to be similar of the original human. It was a process developed for organ transplants, but it works with a whole human. With...obvious flaws.

Their cells aren't stable and most clones would die within a year due to health issues and how much they actually develop is up in the air. The clones do retain memories and some personality traits, but stuff like motor functions and communication suffer.

One human can be cloned multiple times. And then it's the clone's brain that's sacrificed for the AI. But making a person so they might make a successful AI is also... [Pretty horrible.]

[ Urk ]

And ... and all of this is legal? [ How is any of this legal? ]

More the timing meant they didn't make it entirely illegal.

An AI is an extremely powerful tool. But the only way to truly ethically make it was to be ready when someone died and used their brain, but between knowing it's coming to have the timing right, and needing someone smart enough to make an AI that could perform well, and how a dead brain is still kind of a tricky thing, it was an unreliable method to go about it.

And unreliable wasn't something we could risk. Not when entire planets of people were dying. Then it just becomes a numbers game.

Do we let countless lives die because we don't have the tools...

Or do we take the clones from someone who volunteered for this. Since they have things from the original and they don't have time to really divert, the consent is kind of quasi given for the clone. And they were going to die in a year living miserably anyway.

It's not a good thing to do, but it's by far the lesser evil.

... Hm. I guess it's one of those situations where there's no "good" answer.

[ She still doesn't like the sound of it at all. But ... well. People want to survive, and have a right to fight for their lives. ]

[ Slides over the chopping board of finely chopped chocolate. ]

Yeah. When faced with extinction, all other option is preferable. But preferable doesn't mean we like it.

[Going to mix in the chocolate to let it all melt with the milk.]

Project Freelancer was all about shoving one person into anothers head. There were side effects, risks, left over damage...not something a person would agree with normally.

And our Project wasn't the only one taking risks like that.

But we agreed because we knew the alternative. At least, that's what I would think I did. I was real big on not letting people die if I could do something.

[At least earlier on. Chorus...maybe not so much.]

That sounds about right for you…? I mean … we don't remember each other yet, and we've only known each other for a few days, really. But you seem like the kind of guy who, when you've decided that you're going to help someone, you'll do everything within your power.

[ Which is why that last memory was so damn jarring. ]

I like to think I'm that kind of person, yeah.

[And it does make that really jarring.]

I mean, gonna start something, should finish it. Especially when people are depending on you.

[ Nod, nod! She agrees with all of that. ]

Definitely. I guess ... I don't know. Everyone has off days? [ That's putting it so lightly though. ]

....yeah, sometimes.

But that didn't....that wasn't....

[His hands are shaking and he's going to step to the side and gestures for her to take over mixing chocolate and milk because he's not sure what he's gonna do with it.]

Fuck. Just...fuck.

- Dusk ...

[ She moves the saucepan off the heat, actually, turning to reach for his hands. ]

[He doesn't pull away. Doesn't grab back, he doesn't fully trust his grip at the moment.]

Who the hell would send me there? There had to be someone else, anyone else....

Fucking assholes, that's who. [ She keeps her grip steady, firm without clinging. ]

And I hope someone gave them what for, afterwards.

Yeah.

Yeah, fucking assholes, it's not like there's that many agent names and I'm pretty sure that was Forty-Seven Niner.

[Rubbing at his face with his free hand.] Hopefully because jesus fuck.

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