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[There was still a faint glow emitting from Aya's palm as she activated the console, alternating her attention between the strange symbols being read off a holographic screen and the public she had chosen to address. Her construct brows were slightly furrowed, indicating concern, even though her voice was as soft and audibly clam as ever.]

I have been hearing words of some sort of...illness? [Though she did not seem convinced by the word choice] ...that is allegedly spreading throughout the city. Again.

[She had yet to forget those spores that had gotten even her sick some time back.]

Though both external and internal scans of my systems have yet to find evidence of an infection, I am nevertheless concerned for those who may be susceptible to its influence. If you are exhibiting symptoms of any kind, I would be most interested in finding out what those are so that I may add them to my ongoing database of knowledge.

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[Bladewolf had heard there was another artificial lifeform in the city, but to see her for himself...needless to say, he was not been prepared. Nevertheless, his own internal excitement isn't evident on his face.]

I would be interested in this information as well, if you are willing to share your results.

[...oh!]

[She could not be certain with only a single glance as evidence. But...it had been a while since Aya had come across another Artificial Intelligence. Particularly a sentient, independent being that may or may not have been alive as well.]

I do not recognize your form.

Are you a recent arrival?

[Bladewolf twitched his "ears" a little. Though he hadn't had a "childhood" per se, but he felt like a child.]

I am, yes. I have been in the city approximately a week. I am known as Bladewolf. I was informed of the presence of another artificial intelligence by Pepper Potts. I am assuming it is you to whom she was referring.

Edited 2016-02-16 00:52 (UTC)

[Similarly, Aya was "born" a teenager. Sort of. At the very least, excluding the erased memories she had no way of accessing ~~THANKS, SCAR~~, she had between three and four Earth year's worth of memories in total. Though she thought and acted very much like a young woman.]

Unless Pepper Potts was thinking of another Artificial Intelligence that I, too, have not been made aware of...yes.

[She also did not bother to point out the fact that her Intelligence was not-so-Artificial. Unless the details came up in the course of their conversation.]

I am Aya.

[Interestingly enough, a slight bastardization of the pronunciation of "A.I.", given to her long before her living status had been made known.]

[Bladewolf was roughly the same age, though thanks to the world he lived in, as well the original purpose for his creation, he seemed older than that.]

It would be a welcome, if unrealistic revelation. Artificial intelligence, it seems, is a rare development.

[Bladewolf himself was artificial more or less in name only, if only because of the organic structure of his artificial neural network. His "AI" was as close to a human brain as they could make it, albeit with significantly larger capacity.]

It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. It is...a unique experience, encountering another AI.

[Technically speaking, nothing about Aya was even remotely human aside from the man she looked up to as a father figure. Her mind was of Oan origin. Her physical form was taken from that of a Volkreig woman. She was raised among the stars, and traveled to Sectors even her fellow Green Lanterns had never been to.]

There have been others...although, admittedly, not many.

Certainly, I have never encountered another of my kind. Here, or in my universe of origin.

[With no offense intended, present company included. Even if she were to discover that he were as alive as she...he showed how signs of possessing the Green Energy that had given her that spark of life in the first place.]

[Nearly everything about Bladewolf was prototypical. He was the first fully self-aware AI in his world, and his exoskeleton had been created from schematics recovered from a holographic memory unit found in Africa. Only the CNT that made his artificial muscle tissue was made from preexisting technology.]

I am, in truth, the only true fully self-aware AI of my world. I was created as a prototype, but was deemed a failure for my intended purpose.

[A pause.]

It seems that, what makes us individual...also makes us unique.

[Coincidentally enough.]

My creator had also deemed me a failure. She said I had become...too unpredictable. Too advanced.

[Unable to be controlled because she had a mind of her own.]

I have yet to determine whether or not I find it better or worse to be so unique.

[And already Bladewolf sympathizes. It sucks to end up something other than what you were intended.]

I was intended to replace human soldiers and robots in armed conflict. However, my creators could not instill a sense of brutality, nor a moral urge to resist it during my creation. I engage in violence only as a last resort, and only for purposes of self-preservation, or protection of others.

[He nods in agreement]

While I am grateful to not be a weapon of war, I was afforded the opportunity to find other purposes for my abilities. Perhaps I lack the emotional sophistication to be bothered by my failure.

[He's been too busy redefining himself to really dwell on the failure of the LQ-84i program. He knew what he was supposed to be, but he liked himself better as he was.]

Edited 2016-02-16 03:26 (UTC)

[...and there was where some of their similarities ceased to be. Sort of.]

I do not know what my creator's original intentions were. Only that I awoke with the prime directive of serving as the navigational computer of a highly advanced interstellar ship.

It was...through watching and learning by example that I chose to take up the fight. My participation in the war against those who sought to harm defenseless others was my own.

[In fact, Kilowog, in particular, had sought every excuse he could as to why she could not be a Green Lantern. Excuses she had countered at every turn.]

However, I do not fault you for seeking other purposes.

[A small "hmm" escapes from Bladewolf, as he thinks. He didn't word things quite as well as he should have.]

I apologize. It is not that I will not fight, I simply choose not to, unless there is a good reason. I was meant to be a mindless weapon of war. Why they chose to give me free will, I do not understand.

A pause.]

Shortly after my creation, I was activated by a terrorist organization, that used redundant security protocols to force me into compliance. If I did not follow their orders and fight, they would wipe my memory and in effect, kill me. It was not until I encountered someone who taught me the value of free will, and fighting for one's beliefs, that I would begin to question my orders.

[Then, Bladewolf plays a video from his memory archives of Aya to see.]

Sam was the first person to treat me as something other than a piece of equipment. He inspired me to fight for others who had been enslaved by World Marshal, as I had been.

[It was an...interesting memory, to be certain. Why don't you try thinking for yourself? A question that had never once been asked of her, if only because it never needed to be.]

[Because her first words had been a question. Asking what the word beautiful meant. A curiosity that couldn't possibly have come from a program or anything other than herself.]

I do not believe it was their choice to grant you Free Will.

As it did with me, it was something that you evolved into possessing. All your own.

[Is that a smile? It might look like a grimace, but Bladewolf's posture and the way he's moving suggest that he's pleased. There may be a tail wagging in the background.]

Perhaps not. My creators were primarily focused on teaching me speech and reading comprehension. Still, if they did not intend for me to gain self-awareness, they should not have granted me the neural capacity to do so. Ironically, my primary directive is to preserve and pass along all knowledge acquired. They did not think to ensure specific loyalty in my core programming.

[A pause. He Thinking.]

I believe you are correct. Thank you.

[Of course she was correct. This was experience talking. The kind only a handful of individuals of any universe could claim to possess.]

You are welcome. I am glad to have offered some empathetic introspection on the matter.

[Experience with things other than war and infiltration were something Bladewolf sorely lacked. He really needed all the help he could get.]

It is...refreshing to gain another's insight in this matter. It is a difficult subject to speak of with individuals who do not have the experience of gaining sentience as we have. Humans, at least, are different.

The various other species and beings I have encountered during my many travels are...similarly different.

[As oxymoronic as that sounded, there was little other way of directly stating her meaning.]

I admit, I am envious. I was not aware of other sapient species before I arrived here. Despite their limitations, I would imagine that other species must be fascinating, in terms of culture and societal norms.

[He totally gets it. People were weird about artificial intelligence, no matter the species.]

[Some, weirder than others.]

I have learned much from various worlds, it is true.

Though the same can be said of the world of Keelai. Though it is a single city on a single planet, there are a wide variety of cultural representations that have come together in such a relatively close quarters.

Perhaps there is something to be said of being removed completely from the familiar, with regards to expanding one's understanding of culture and cultural identity. For example, I was "raised" on American culture of the early 21st century, but spent much of my time in the field in third-world countries ravaged by civil war. Though my experience with culture shock is not as profound as it might be with a human, I nevertheless found myself adapting both linguistically, as well as learning new behaviors with regards to how individuals interact with each other.

[A pause.]

I have already begun learning of the culture of the Kedan, through exposure as I travel the city. It has been...fascinating.

America...that is a location on the planet Earth, is it not?

[She recognized it from Hal Jordan's past stories. One of the names he gave to the place he came from.]

Leaning through experience can have many benefits. Though I also recommend having the sense to accurately discern which cultural traditions are strictly kedanese in nature, and which ones are part of the influence of those who've arrived here from other worlds.

Yes. It is a country in the northern hemisphere of the planet.

[He could get more specific, but talking planetarily, northern hemisphere covered it well enough.]

I had not considered cultural blending in a place such as this, but in retrospect I should have. Given that the city itself rests on the back of a turtle, which is itself a mythology potentially originating from Earth. The "World Turtle".

...I do not have any records of such a mythology.

[Though she was somewhat familiar with the tale from the perspective of the locals, the fact that it shared such a coincidental commonality with Earth was...unexpected.]

May I ask what you know of the World Turtle?

On Earth, the "World Turtle" is a mythology shared by three separate cultures. While the specifics of the myth vary based on local religious beliefs and superstitions, the essential element of the myth is that the planet, or in one case a single continent, rests on the back of a turtle. Supposedly, movement of the part of this turtle, either through space or through the ocean, is responsible for natural disasters or inclement weather.

[A pause.]

As a myth, I believe it is meant to reinforce respect for the environment. To prevent disturbances to the organism upon which the known world is believed to rest.

[Another pause, as he remember something else from trawling the internet for his reading lessons.]

The myth is also cited in modern popular culture, in which a fictional world known as "Discworld" rests upon four tusked mammals known as "Elephants" which in turn stand upon the back of a giant turtle.

[Well. The story certainly was not wrong. Though perhaps not a continent--or maybe just a very small one--Keelai did, in fact, experience a variety of weather events that could have been attributed to Asti's travels.]

I have yet to witness evidence of the presence of any Elephants.

[You know, just for comparison.]

It is a fictionalized equivalent to an old legend, some embellishment is to be expected.

[After all, stories grew with each telling. It was one of the few non-literal things he'd learned.]

Nevertheless, I am curious about the organism the city is built upon, but have been cautioned against examining it too closely.

[A pause.]

Perhaps I will travel to the continent, so that I may look at the turtle from the appropriate perspective.

You will have to travel quite far. Beyond the reach of instant communication, if I am not mistaken.

The creature known as Asti is...quite large.

[To put it mildly.]

This is an acceptable risk. I am capable at traveling at very high speed over land, so it should not take me as long as it might someone limited to bipedal locomotion, and I believe the things I would learn would be worth the effort.

[Bladewolf is a lot of things, but a quitter is not one of them. He is very curious about both Asti, and the landmass the turtle had run aground on.]

So long as you take care to monitor your varying processing levels to ensure that the distance does not effect you in any extreme way...that should suffice.

[And then, a phrase she had found herself more and more commonly using the longer she spent time among various carbon-based life forms:]

Good luck.

I will. I do not expect any complications, as I was built to traverse long distances, but I will keep your advice in mind.

[He nods.]

Thank you.

[She smiled. Warmly, even.]

You are most welcome.

It is not an illness.

All truths will be laid bare, no secrets can be buried.

[...well, then.]

You sound considerably certain of this fact.

I have seen it. Haven't you? The way the light inside changed.

...Light?

[Her first instinct was to think of a...Green Lantern Light, which reflexively caused her to glance down. No. No, as far as she could tell, her physical form was still holding strong. There was no dimming of her construct body, nor any notable change in the power she was capable of exerting.]

Yes.

Inside. It is like someone removed debris blocking water and it could flow again.

[First light. Now water.]

Are you currently speaking in metaphor? Because...I am not very proficient in non-literal terminology.

I have told you what I see. Is what you see different?

[...y...es?]

It is my understanding that the nature of multiple visible wavelengths can vary depending upon the receptive nature of that particular organism's photoreceptor neurons.

However, I have...never heard of an instance in which an individual is seeing both Light and Water when others do not, unless that individual is...hallucinating.

[She's not saying you're hallucinating. She's just saying.]

People see things differently because their eyes are different?

...Yes. It would explain why Ico could not see some paths until I was able to show him.

Either your visual receptors, or else the images that the neurons in your brain translate them to.

[Again, still not saying hallucinations but...]

I still do not fully comprehend why you are seeing what it is you claim to see, but...if that is the case, then yes. It is possible.

Perhaps it is not what I see, but what I say. I am sorry - there are many things yet that I do not know. When I see things, I speak them as best I can.

That much, I understand.

In fact, I am...sorry that I cannot understand your words themselves. There are limits to my database of knowledge, after all.

Were there things you also were not permitted to know?

[You mean like the memories of her actual birth? Possibly...]

I suspect there may be.

However, I do not know them, so I cannot say whether or not the knowledge has been purposely kept from me, or if I have simply not been made aware of it yet.

I understand.

If it has been kept from you, I hope you find it soon.

As do I.

Your concern is...greatly appreciated in this matter. [Translation: thank you for your kind words.]

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