[video]

[irrationalprogramming]

[The person on your clean pretty clearly is not an actual person! On account of looking like an anime character. She bows.]

Hi, folks! My name is *Mute, chief security officer of the Mugunghwa. The * is silent - it just means that I'm an AI.

I know I can't exactly get back now, but because it's my duty to protect it, I went ahead and left the last known coordinates of the Mugunghwa with the Initiative. Once all this other crazy business is over, give or take a few hundred years, it would be nice to be able to see it again, or at least to know that it's being recovered. Even if I didn't have a directive telling me to prioritize its safety, I spent my entire life on that ship, so I've got a lot of sentimental value tied up with the place.

Speaking of which, this is my first time on the old homeworld, and...



Has it always been this much of a dump, or is that a new thing? Because, like, wow.


[[*Mute has been granted access by the Initiative to security camera footage in various public areas, as OK'd by the mods.]]

Comments

[irrationalprogramming]

It's not exactly my specialty, and what I do know is seriously complicated. It's probably better to just leave it at that.

[scentofpink]

Hm. AIs of your level do exist, but they're hard to create. Not too surprising, but a little disappointing. Could you at least give a general gist? Is it brain simulation? Evolutionary processes? Learning based? What's it?

[irrationalprogramming]

As I understand it, all AIs are ultimately descended from a single AI that was created thousands of years ago.

[scentofpink]

How delightfully fascinating! That suggests the initial process is either extremely rare, or difficult enough it's markedly easier to create a derivation instead.

[irrationalprogramming]

Something like that, yeah. The first AI is pretty much a legend at this point.

[scentofpink]

Given your mention of the homeworld, you were on a spaceship, right? The engineering problems involved in that're pretty enormous. Just how did you handle them?

[irrationalprogramming]

Sorry to let you down, but I'm a security AI, not an engineering AI. I pretty much know enough to know when something needs looking at, but I left the details to the experts.

[scentofpink]

Oh, alright. It's not like I'm a rocket engineer, either, even if I've read up on the subject some. My main focus's in the magical sciences.

[irrationalprogramming]

You don't say.

[scentofpink]

Oh? Are you doubting me?

[irrationalprogramming]

Can you really blame me?

[scentofpink]

I suppose there're enough charlatans pretending to be mages for you to have doubt.

[She holds her fingertips apart, and electricity arcs between them.]

If you need more proof than that, it'll take more time to set up.

[The electricity continues arcing.]

[irrationalprogramming]

If you're trying to prove that you can do magic, then yeah, it's gonna take a hell of a lot more than that.

[She's recording this, though.]

[scentofpink]

Alright, give me a half hour or so to set something up.

[She stands up, giving a better view of her outfit which's a t-shirt with a weird symbol and cutoff jeans. Then they shift abruptly and smoothly into something a little more official looking--a long black overcoat with thick cuffs, collars, and trim all embroidered with similar symbols in silver. It's fastened shut.]

There, we look more like a proper magician. Now let's get started.

[irrationalprogramming]

I'm watching.

[scentofpink]

[First, Rosy sets up the tablet to get a good view of the room. It looks kinda dingy and bare, though there's a clean looking bed and a few cardboard boxes in sight. She takes from a shoulder bag assorted odd tools of metal and glass, including ones with prongs but also wavy ones and ones that look like clawed hands. Then over the next half hour, she sets to work, prodding and tapping and drawing them across the floor. Early on, a circle's marked in the middle of the floor with what looks like a glass hand with a pointing finger. Said circle glows faintly. At the end of the half hour, she steps onto the circle and... her feet leaves the ground. She's just floating.in midair. She waves to the screen.]

This's still one of my favorites.

[irrationalprogramming]

It's a hell of a trick, but I'm still not convinced it's magic.

[scentofpink]

Well, then you've exhausted the extent of the effort I'm willing to go to.

[She's now loafing in midair, resting her chin on her crossed arms.]

Unless you suggest something fun to do. I've a few hours to kill before my host comes back from work.