Side Effects (Staren)
| Side Effects (Staren) | |
|---|---|
| Date of Cutscene: | 28 October 2012 |
| Location: | Staren's Lab |
| Synopsis: | Body-swapping doesn't always go smoothly. |
| Cast of Characters: | Staren |
Staren walks through his laboratory. All things considered, this was a pretty successful test, although he sustained more damage than expected. Still, he was _able_ to, and that's a success, right?
He stops and looks in the mirror by the resleeving machine, and the robot looks back. No, that's not right. That's _him_... it was all so clear, the first time he tested the system to make sure his backup would have someplace to _go_ if the worst happened... He had had no problem thinking of himself as a program running on a computer that, while usually was made of squishy grey neurons, was today made of silicon microchips. But this time he can't shake the feeling that he's... not himself, or that he's wearing armor or something.
He shakes his head and turns away from the mirror--the resleeving machine, with his body suspended in stasis inside, comes into his view and there's another rush of strange sensation. He can almost feel himself, asleep in there... just remote-controlling this body like one of his drones. But that's _not_ the case this time, he _knows_ that, that body's brain is _empty_ to prevent accidental duplication, he's in _here_... "Ugh!" he growls in frustration and turns away. Whatever's going on, things will be normal again soon. He'll be back in his body, and then he'll go to sleep, and there will hopefully be no need to leave it again for a long time...
As he turns to the table he's about to lie down on, he frowns at the finger-impressions on the edge, and the footprints embedded in the floor beside it. Did he really not notice his own strength before? He shakes his head. Enough! He lies down...
...He wakes up. He opens his eyes and looks up at the ceiling's fluorescent lights, and takes a deep breath. Ahh, air filling his lungs again. He holds his hand to his chest, feeling the faint beating of his heart, and lets out a sigh.
He's home.
He moves to hop off the table to his feet, and tumbles to the floor, his head slamming into it. "OW! OWOWOWOWOW!" He holds his head, rising to his knees and just staying there a moment, waiting for the pain to lessen some before standing up, a little uneasily. "Tssssss... dammit." He finally releases his head, wiggles his fingers and toes. Everything feels normal.
He bumps into the doorway on his way into his room. "Ow!"
--
The next day, after stubbing his toe on a box, running into the doorjamb again, and accidentally dropping a glass at breakfast, he finds himself on the elevator back down to the lab.
"This is perfectly normal, if rare. Just stay calm and you can get through it." The girl in the purple dress in his HUD, the new avatar of his assist AI, reassures him. "Once you leave and reenter this body, you'll be fine. It's like how sometimes you just need to reboot a computer to fix it."
<<Hmph.>> he thinks back. <<I know, but I've never had to reboot my _mind_ before. Or my body. Don't mention this to my allies if you talk to them -- I'll never hear the end of it.>>
She nods, and disappears as he "ow" bumps into the elevator door in his rush to get out, and walks, quickly, back to the resleeving machine, climbing in and feeling drug-induced sleep take him...
...He wakes up a machine once more, and turns to look at his original body asleep in its pod. And then at the mirror. He, who happens to be in a robot body at the moment, looks back. He sighs with relief. He stands, does a few tests of mobility. Everything normal. He lies back on the table, and wonders if he's broken something, and now every time he returns to his own body he won't be able to control it right... Or will be stuck feeling that he's really a robot in the wrong body? He's not sure which would be _worse_...
Mercifully, such thoughts won't keep him awake right now, because as a machine he can simply turn himself--
...Air rushing into lungs. Heart beating. Soft flesh over firm bone under his fingers. He sits up, hops to the floor, wiggles, does a little dance worthy of Twilight Sparkle, and sighs. It's over, right?
He looks at the robot lying on the other table. Rare, and temporary side effects, seemed a small price to pay for immortality, and occasionally borrowing a strong steel body immune to disease.
It's different, after you've lived through them.
But to declare the technology... evil, or wrong, and refuse to use it, would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
He will accept the risks to reap the rewards, and simply _be careful_. Always careful.
If he's careful enough, he'll have forever to work out how to do it better, after all.
