oo5 ⊗ video ⊗ fifth move ⟹ backdated to oct 5th.

[oxfordian]

[ charles is visibly distressed when he appears on the screen, this time. he's in what seems to be some underground facility, and there are other faces behind him—notably collette, emma, galadriel, raven, and others. his eyes remain closed for a second and you can hear him take a deep breath. then: ]

We have... borrowed a gentleman by the name of Richard Lawson...—from the United Earth. He is a cabinet member of the President's. Yes, the President of the United Earth. [ charles clears his throat, steels himself. ]

We've learnt a great many things about the United Earth from his head, and we feel it best to share that information with all of you, here on the Network.

[ charles states the next words with a heavy voice. ]

The President of the United Earth is not human. "He" is—artificial. Artificial Intelligence, or what you would call an A.I.. The United Earth... has never seen his face, as far as we have deduced.

We will try to answer questions about what we have learnt to the very best of our ability, but do be patient. Ah—[ he closes his eyes again, considering. then he nods as though he's made the right decision and he knows it. ]

That is all.

( note: wow i knew i forgot something like a winner. THIS TAKES PLACE DURING/AFTER these linked shenanigans: [ x ] [ x ] [ x ] [ x ] )

Comments

[ladyspitfire]

We? How did you do this?

[assumeddirectcontrol]

[She waves her hand, disregarding that.] Not the prisoner, although I'd rethink not having him locked up. The president. Is it an unshackled AI? [A pause, because Shepard realizes that he probably doesn't understand what that means.] Can it think and act for itself without someone controlling it?

[whatsupcroc]

I don't think the Initiative wants him to just walk away. I mean... if they can manage to help him through getting rid of his conditioning right now, that's something, isn't it? He's a public official...

[ Though she frowns. ]

Though so is their president, and he's sure not physically walking around with his people.

[ Oh man... such a headache. ]

THAT'S OKAY xD

[oxfordian]

From a utilitarian standpoint, it seems the most efficient, I suppose.

There is a lot left... to be learnt from this—you wonder?

[inafadingcrown]

I am in possession of certain gifts, as I have told you. It is well within my power, and, seemingly the power of a few others here, to see into the hearts and minds of others.

[oxfordian]

[ h e h glados ]

The consensus, of course, has been not to trust them; I can only wonder how one had ended up in such a position of power.

[whatsupcroc]

A few things about life in the UE as a daily occurrence. Charlie can probably summarize them better than I can!

[stonefaith]

The public of the United Earth are held very separate from their military. They may send forces back. To search for him, at the very least, even if they still believe that most of us are dead.

[ which bariyan isn't really sure about. the initiative had said one thing, but how do you miss an entire island of people crawling back to the surface, really? ]

video;

[oxfordian]

Ah, not quite. Only after the effects of the drug themselves had worn off—it seems they must take this medication every morning, or its effects will deteriorate. That was our opening, as it were.

[whatsupcroc]

Mmm, no, right afterward. When the gasses were still around pretty heavily and the Initiative was asking for people to play possum underground.

[video]

[f_u_wesker]

An AI?

[The look on her face shows she's familiar with the concept and not happy about it.

As if she hadn't had enough of AI's in her life, what's next? Zombies? ... Oh please, god, no.

If only she could remember how they took the Red Queen down.]

[oxfordian]

Nothing harmful to him, I assure you. I only mean to say that the sort of mind-reading differs from one individual in our group to the other.

[whatsupcroc]

You did say that they have big groups of military heads that walk around the whole time. If that's how it is, and I were this AI guy, I'd be scared what someone holding on to Dick and being able to break him away from my control would really do.

So yeah, that's probably going to happen. But I think it was going to happen anyway. Did you hear what the UE walked away with from the Initiative? I mean, what Dick thought they were after, and what they got.

[uncalled_for]

Unfortunately, not simple enough. [She'd love to hear more but now is hardly the time...]

So you have information of this president of theirs so now what do you plan to do with it?

[oxfordian]

Unfortunately, that information remains unknown. [ he frowns. ]

Our access was only what limited information had been made public to Mr Lawson, I'm afraid.

[ladyspitfire]

[Oh. Well, that sounds just a little bit like blood magic. But Elissa reserves her judgment until she hears everything.]

And you discovered the United Earth has an..."A.I." in control. I don't quite understand what that is. What does this mean for us?

[whatsupcroc]

Alice, did they have big corrupt AI's where you're from too?

[oxfordian]

They have him in their own confinement. From what I understand, they wish to attempt to undo the United Earth's conditioning; to free him from their illusions.

[strategic_guile]

Oh, I'm sure it'll be analyzed to death and more information teased out.

You still have him, right? This Richard Lawson. If one of you can got rooting around in his head, like it was implied, there should be far more to learn. Though saying 'borrowed' is rather diplomatic. You aren't really going to let him go back.

[trustycrowbar]

Hn, I'm sure they didn't mean for it to happen at first. A computer's main purpose is to calculate. Tabulations, probabilities, packets of data flying this way and that, it's all just numbers. Useful numbers, but numbers nonetheless.

But take it from a guy who knows. Numbers don't necessarily mean ANSWERS. Over a couple generations of trust in a machine, they probably forgot that and this is where it brought them.

[rota]

[When you're a detective, you don't kidnap people X'((((( ]

I'm not the one you should be congratulating, I believe.

[oxfordian]

[ Charles seems thankful for the clarification, and he nods. ]

It would seem that way, from what I gathered from his mind. It makes its own decisions, at least—from what Mr Lawson perceived.

video

[confiteri]

You captured him. [ Seems legit. But wait a second─ ] From his head? How did you achieve this?

voice

[selfloyalty]

How on earth did you extract this?

[she has no idea what an AI is either, so her her the leader not being human = monster.

~fantasy logic~]

[whatsupcroc]

We brought him in for hug rehabilitation post being a big fat jerk surgery.

[ Straightface.

Come on, people are getting so serious. Yes, it's not -- great, but the guy's fine, they all saw to that. And while it made her squirm thinking about what fine lines there were between what the psychics did and what Yeerks could do -- those lines were still lines. ]

He was okay, you know! No one did anything weird like beat him up or torture him or something really gross like that.