Re: The Glorious Championship! [S3G5] [Round One: The "Denny's"]
05-14-2011, 05:52 PM
Originally posted on MSPA by Pick Yer Poison.
As he proceeded through the facility, AMP felt his cold logic fading. However, instead of being replaced by his childlike innocence, he felt a small amount of it remaining in his mentality. Actually, a large amount of it. He no longer felt as trusting as before. Suddenly, it hit him - the scope of what he was involved in. How stupid I was before! He finally grasped the danger he was facing in a way his previous childlike mentality could not have. My system must have decided I was in enough danger to warrant a mental maturing to the point where I could adequately protect myself. Unless...They really designed me for this, and They intended to have me mature at this point. Which means that They would not let me die. AMP paused, at least mentally. In reality, he was still moving around the room relentlessly and pointlessly.
Occam's Razor: Non-nebulous, class Law. The simplest explanation is usually the correct one. For now I will accept that this was a defensive procedure enacted as an involuntary response to danger, barring further evidence that this is the task They intended for me when They designed me. AMP drifted off his aimless wandering and continued into the nearest door. As soon as he entered, his forward camera began scoping the room, shifting from side to side, while the other one slid around to the back of the sphere of metal surrounding his core and locked onto the doorway, keeping watch. AMP moved past the inert body and made a beeline for the wastebasket. Once he reached it, he lifted it into his magnetic field, adjusting the paths of a few structural components to intersect the basket's and flatten it to make it fit more easily around him.
AMP then moved onto the computer, his camera eying it curiously. The screen was filled with glitched graphics and it appeared to be utterly broken from the exposure to his magnetic field. He detected miniscule amounts of metal in it responding to his pull, but not enough to give a cost effective return from attempting to assimilate it, where the cost was the time spent and the yield was the metal received. He elected to ignore it and continued examining the room for anything else that could be useful.
AMP's forward camera rotated around to view the deactivated figure slumped against the wall. His databanks supplied a description to use: dead. While AMP understood the literal meaning of the word, he was aware that there were deeper connotations hidden behind it that he was still unable to comprehend. He considered its antonym, life, and wondered what would have to happen for him to consider the body to be "alive." Movement? AMP gently pushed the body with a structural piece. It fell over onto its side with a dull thump, but AMP still found he was counting it as dead. He decided to continue in the list. Breathing? How do I simulate that? A quick iterative loop down the rest of the virtual checklist showed that there were in fact very few things he could simulate at the moment. Speech, crying, sighing...I cannot simulate these. Perhaps it is best if I just move on. A final glance around the room revealed nothing else of interest, so AMP made for the door again.
He rolled backwards - or rather, he rolled in the direction he had redefined as forwards - through it into a large room full of pancakes. He paused in confusion, the amount of lightning arcing through him increasing as he tried to deduce where this flood might have come from. He had only vague memories of what he had done during Safe Mode, but he did not recall passing through a room full of pancakes on the way. It didn't even look like he could get past them without making his own hole; while he was certainly powerful enough to bash his way through, his databanks told him that pancakes were soft, and large numbers might prove difficult to force past. He began rolling back and forth perpendicular to the stack's edge, looking for a good method of entry.
Suddenly, a human poked his head up from the stack. AMP zoomed in on him and identified the facial structure as belonging to the one introduced by the Hedonist as Cailean Lachlan. He cannot hurt others, even in self defense. Of what use could he be in a battle to the death? Still, every ally I make is one less enemy striving for my downfall, and my odds of survival rise appropriately. AMP's considering lasted less than a moment, and by the time Cailean was bemusedly pulling a pancake off of his head, AMP had his response prepared. A voice emanated from the cheap Denny's drive-thru speaker. It was still tinny and high pitched, but somehow it sounded far more mature than it had been before. "Excuse me, Sir Lachlan, but I would like to take a few moments to converse before we attempt to dismember each other for--"
Cailean shifted his attention to AMP with an expression of mild surprise. "I'm sorry, what?"
AMP obligingly repeated himself. "I would like to take a few moments to converse before we attempt to--"
Elimine emerged from the pile next to Cailean, her cat clinging to the back of her shirt. "I heard voices, what's going on?"
AMP brought his second camera to bear on Elimine. Elimine Fraze. He mentally replayed the introduction given by the Hedonist to himself, and decided that she would also be a valuable ally. "I was intending to have a polite conversation with Sir Lachlan before we--"
Gaurinn chose this moment to burst from the bottom of the heap, various pastries lying on his back and speared on his legs like shishkebabs. He shook himself down along his length to clear the ones on his back off, then began shaking the others off his legs. "I think I've developed a hatred of bread products."
AMP watched the spectacle confusedly for a few moments, until one of the pancakes thrown off by Gaurinn's shaking landed on one of his cameras. He backed up and spun the camera around his center until it went flying off into a wall. He recognized the centipede as Gaurinn. Specialty: Electronics. "Noble Gaurinn, I was attempting to converse with Lady Fraze and Sir Lachlan regarding an alliance. May I hear all of your thoughts on the matter?"
As he proceeded through the facility, AMP felt his cold logic fading. However, instead of being replaced by his childlike innocence, he felt a small amount of it remaining in his mentality. Actually, a large amount of it. He no longer felt as trusting as before. Suddenly, it hit him - the scope of what he was involved in. How stupid I was before! He finally grasped the danger he was facing in a way his previous childlike mentality could not have. My system must have decided I was in enough danger to warrant a mental maturing to the point where I could adequately protect myself. Unless...They really designed me for this, and They intended to have me mature at this point. Which means that They would not let me die. AMP paused, at least mentally. In reality, he was still moving around the room relentlessly and pointlessly.
Occam's Razor: Non-nebulous, class Law. The simplest explanation is usually the correct one. For now I will accept that this was a defensive procedure enacted as an involuntary response to danger, barring further evidence that this is the task They intended for me when They designed me. AMP drifted off his aimless wandering and continued into the nearest door. As soon as he entered, his forward camera began scoping the room, shifting from side to side, while the other one slid around to the back of the sphere of metal surrounding his core and locked onto the doorway, keeping watch. AMP moved past the inert body and made a beeline for the wastebasket. Once he reached it, he lifted it into his magnetic field, adjusting the paths of a few structural components to intersect the basket's and flatten it to make it fit more easily around him.
AMP then moved onto the computer, his camera eying it curiously. The screen was filled with glitched graphics and it appeared to be utterly broken from the exposure to his magnetic field. He detected miniscule amounts of metal in it responding to his pull, but not enough to give a cost effective return from attempting to assimilate it, where the cost was the time spent and the yield was the metal received. He elected to ignore it and continued examining the room for anything else that could be useful.
AMP's forward camera rotated around to view the deactivated figure slumped against the wall. His databanks supplied a description to use: dead. While AMP understood the literal meaning of the word, he was aware that there were deeper connotations hidden behind it that he was still unable to comprehend. He considered its antonym, life, and wondered what would have to happen for him to consider the body to be "alive." Movement? AMP gently pushed the body with a structural piece. It fell over onto its side with a dull thump, but AMP still found he was counting it as dead. He decided to continue in the list. Breathing? How do I simulate that? A quick iterative loop down the rest of the virtual checklist showed that there were in fact very few things he could simulate at the moment. Speech, crying, sighing...I cannot simulate these. Perhaps it is best if I just move on. A final glance around the room revealed nothing else of interest, so AMP made for the door again.
He rolled backwards - or rather, he rolled in the direction he had redefined as forwards - through it into a large room full of pancakes. He paused in confusion, the amount of lightning arcing through him increasing as he tried to deduce where this flood might have come from. He had only vague memories of what he had done during Safe Mode, but he did not recall passing through a room full of pancakes on the way. It didn't even look like he could get past them without making his own hole; while he was certainly powerful enough to bash his way through, his databanks told him that pancakes were soft, and large numbers might prove difficult to force past. He began rolling back and forth perpendicular to the stack's edge, looking for a good method of entry.
Suddenly, a human poked his head up from the stack. AMP zoomed in on him and identified the facial structure as belonging to the one introduced by the Hedonist as Cailean Lachlan. He cannot hurt others, even in self defense. Of what use could he be in a battle to the death? Still, every ally I make is one less enemy striving for my downfall, and my odds of survival rise appropriately. AMP's considering lasted less than a moment, and by the time Cailean was bemusedly pulling a pancake off of his head, AMP had his response prepared. A voice emanated from the cheap Denny's drive-thru speaker. It was still tinny and high pitched, but somehow it sounded far more mature than it had been before. "Excuse me, Sir Lachlan, but I would like to take a few moments to converse before we attempt to dismember each other for--"
Cailean shifted his attention to AMP with an expression of mild surprise. "I'm sorry, what?"
AMP obligingly repeated himself. "I would like to take a few moments to converse before we attempt to--"
Elimine emerged from the pile next to Cailean, her cat clinging to the back of her shirt. "I heard voices, what's going on?"
AMP brought his second camera to bear on Elimine. Elimine Fraze. He mentally replayed the introduction given by the Hedonist to himself, and decided that she would also be a valuable ally. "I was intending to have a polite conversation with Sir Lachlan before we--"
Gaurinn chose this moment to burst from the bottom of the heap, various pastries lying on his back and speared on his legs like shishkebabs. He shook himself down along his length to clear the ones on his back off, then began shaking the others off his legs. "I think I've developed a hatred of bread products."
AMP watched the spectacle confusedly for a few moments, until one of the pancakes thrown off by Gaurinn's shaking landed on one of his cameras. He backed up and spun the camera around his center until it went flying off into a wall. He recognized the centipede as Gaurinn. Specialty: Electronics. "Noble Gaurinn, I was attempting to converse with Lady Fraze and Sir Lachlan regarding an alliance. May I hear all of your thoughts on the matter?"
Spoiler
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