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Ishirou Ishirou has decided to set up shop in Secundus, and has for some reason set up territory in the robot lands.  In these lands, there are small robots, with round faces and random-shaped bodies (usually round) that roam around.  Some seem to do nothing at all, while others perform their version of trade, some do strange arts, and others build more of themselves.

In one such place, there is a large factory building, with various cranes and docks that seem to connect to a large body of water.  There are random pieces of equipment, and some even work.  Here the robots seem to act like factory workers, making things.  However, SOME do nothing, pretending to drink water or coffee in random break rooms.  It's like they've /seen/ how factories work, but don't understand how and why humans do the things they do.  Instead, they just try to emulate it, without understanding it.  

Right now, Ishirou is trying to convince a group of slacking off robots that it's because humans need breaks.  "Look, I know humans do this when working, but it's not /functional/  you don't have to stand around all day drinking.." he looks as the robot pours coffee into its lack of a mouth, and it pours onto its face and chest.  

In a tinny voice, it responds, "I think what you're saying is fake, I read the manual."

At this point, the intercom turns on, spouting words.  The individual words can be understood but strung together make no sense.  It's like someone made a babby AI and told it to say words.
Arthur Lowell >Arthur: Go see what Ishirou is doing

    Arthur has kind of defaulted to the Paladin side of this excursion, so far. While he's currently living in Kale's home base, he keeps going out to everyone else's territories! And that includes Ishirou, to "help" with the factory reclaimation. "What if it's got REAL FUNCTIONS? You checked to make sure there's no AUTOMATED LABOR INSPECTORS makin' sure that BREAK TIMES get respected?" Arthur looks critically at the slacking-off robots. "Maybe there's a way you can just make the SLACKING more efficient. Looks like they're NOT gettin' HELLA STAT BOOSTS off that BEAN JUICE."

    He's scouring around the break room for spare mouthparts. "Hey, where's that MANUAL about the BREAKS?" He rambles. "Lookin' like ya'll need BREAK BOOSTS." Is this helping? Well, it's a *kind* of help.
Ishirou The now java-stained robot looks towards Arthur.  The voice of the robot is...rough, but also has that strange tinny and robot-esc sound you expect.  The rough part is trying to pretend to be a factory worker.  "Yes, there is a manual we have all read.  I don't have it, but it's there and we've all read it." The other robots nod with him.  They've all read it, and the manual is real.

Ishirou sighs, rubbing his forehead at this.  "See, I don't disagree with breaks Arthur, but I've examined their work for a few cycles, and..." he sighs, "Well the same group goes to the same places and works.  They power down and rest, and then repeat it.  A single group goes to the break room to break.  One goes to the speaker to make random sounds...the rest actually do something."

"The break room doesn't do anything!  At least, it doesn't when only these four hang out here and the rest work all day.  Except for the intercom robot, he's a dick."  

The robots all nod in agreement.  "He is a dick."
Arthur Lowell >Arthur: How do you solve this? Maybe it's a role allocation?

    "Huh. So these guys are the BREAK-TAKING ROBOTS. I mean, shit, not a FACTORY without BREAKS." He says. He looks to Ishirou and scratches his chin. He looks lost in thought... "Hell. How would I think through this..." He eventually settles on something. he winds up pointing at Ishirou. "Hey. What's it you're FIGHTING FOR, again? LIke, the PURPOSE and CAUSE and all. I wanna see if THIS is a kind of SPECIFIC THING."
Ishirou Ishirou sighs, "Yeah, apparently they are...but the workers take breaks after working.  Also, the other robots work way too many hours.  They work /twelve-hour days before swapping/.  It's monstrous..." Ishirou says, "And these guys just...take a break.  For twelve hours before swapping with another break crew.  It's also inefficient."

A pause, "Oh my goal..?  Well.." he says, thinking about how to express it.  "I want to change the world, to make sure that wisdom and intelligence are used to direct civilization instead of greed and convenience.  There are so many societies that are rotting or exploitive.." he pauses, thinking.  "I want to know how to better work it so that the society works for its betterment...where people are happy and fulfilled, and a logical approach to things are made."

"I need to learn how to do this, to make the world I want to live in."
Arthur Lowell >Arthur: Can you draw the connection here?

    Arthur keeps scratching his cheek, trying to think through this. "And the AVERAGE JOE SCHMOE," He rambles. "The RANDO DUDE just kinda EXISTING IN CIVILIZATION, the AVERAGE BRO. What's your SLOT relative to THAT GUY? Should he be DOING MORE, and you wanna ENABLE and INSPIRE THAT? Or do you do the WORK so he DON'T GOTTA, like your work MEANS SOMETHING because you're TAKIN' THE WEIGHT FOR HIM?"

    "I'm thinkin', either these guys are SUPPOSED to be here, and they're like... the DUDES that give a lil' MEANING to the WORK WORKED. *OR* you gotta slam the motherfuckers with INSPIRATION, gotta make 'em feel ENABLED by their BUDS."

>Arthur: Hey, what about the intercom guy?

    He looks up at one of the PA speakers. "And maybe get THAT GUY some SPEECH CLASSES. Or I'll give him a BEATBOXING LESSON."
Ishirou "Well, the idea would be to inspire them to get involved.  I don't know if that means more work, but the idea is that everyone shoulders it.  Everyone works for the betterment, and everyone does their part.  Obviously, it doesn't mean making artists go be factory workers, but they're doing their own thing to make society a better place, right?"

"Not like Indus, not like that Mars..."

Hmm...Arthur offers a suggestion.  "Well I was thinking...rotate people in and out of the Break Job?  That way everyone gets to try it."

The robots look concerned, "But we're certified breakologists."

The PA speaker starts again, "Yeah...yeah.  I think he's just a learning AI connected to a dictionary.  Actually, I wonder if there is a foreman or...AI running things." he looks at the robots.

"Of course, there is a foreman, don't be silly," a small pause, "We just don't know who it is."
Arthur Lowell >Arthur: Close the circuit. What can you do here?

    "LEARNING AI..." Arthur looks up. It leans and acts. He looks back to the certified breakologists... "HUH. Lookin' like ya could use some INFO EXCHANGE. You know that CORPORATE SHIT, what do they call it, KNOWLEDGE SHARING? Think you'd be down to teach the OTHER GUYS how to CHILL?" He looks ti Ishirou, grimaces a bit as he thinks back, and then squats down to put an arm around the shoulder of one of those robots.

    "Hey. Dude. Let me level with you." He says, gesturing with his free hand. "It sounds like those other robots don't know how to take breaks. Workin' themselves too hard. But you guys, you're *certified*. You got *experience*, more than the manuals. It's great to learn how to chill, but I bet it's *better* to make sure those ideas and all that info *lasts*. Spread it around some, you know? Can I get you guys to teach the other bots how to take breaks right? Maybe pick up some of their skills too, while you're at it?"

    What's the ultimate inspiration of learning machines? "Think about it. Right now, if something bad happened to your gang, *important work-pacing knowledge* would just fuckin' *evaporate*. You've developed a bunch of great tech, but it might just mean nothing if you don't share it. Catch my meaning? And if everything *but* the break room vanished, y'all wouldn't know how to do all the rest of the stuff. How you gonna get that utility-function done with a shitty situation like that?"
Ishirou Ishirou looks at Arthur for a minute.  The face is unreadable before he breaks into a grin.  "That's a pretty elegant solution to the problem.."  With that, he lets Arthur do his thing, and watches.  Trying to see how he works this in, and trying to convince the robots on how to share their time and knowledge.

The robots listen to Arthur, then look at each other, then back at Arthur.

"Well...I did hear some dangerous people are moving into the place.."
"Yeah, we don't know what might happen.."
"So if our knowledge is spread out that means nothing is lost..?"
"It does get boring sitting here all day."
"It /does/ get boring."
"And wet."
"We could try not drinking the coffee."
"But we need that to have a break?"
"That's true, it's in the manual."
"And we have to either sit at a table OR lean next to a water cooler."
"Yeah, and talk about TV shows."
"Or current events."
"Or office rumors."
"But not politics."
"Never politics.  Then the guy from payroll says some pretty yikes things."
"Yeah...that guy has some problems."
"Numbers man, they'll break your brain."

They finally get done turning towards Arthur.  "That seems reasonable.  But we'd have to convince the foreman about it...and uh.." There is an awkward pause.  "We don't know who that is."
Arthur Lowell >Arthur: Where's the Foreman?

    The solution to this puzzle is *incredibly* simple. Arthur points at Ishirou. "Him." He says. "Ishirou. I-4. Shi, 4, right there in the name. Four-man." Fucking bulletproof logic right there. "What do you say, you approve?" He asks Ishirou.
Ishirou Ishirou looks at Arthur, both shocked and amazingly pleased at the solution to the puzzle that he thought they'd have to spend either hour tracking down, only to find there was no foreman.

Somewhere else.  A larger version of these robots lays dead at a desk, having impaled himself.  Why?  Too much stress, and once stress overcame his mental statistic, the program said 'die'.  He didn't want to, but the program said to.  This happened so long ago that there is dust everywhere on the walls, and the 'oil' from him had long since dried.  The door hadn't been opened in so long it'd been rusted shut.

Away from Yako Taro land...

The robots look at each other, then at Ishirou, and then back at Arthur.  They seem to communicate something between them for a moment, before looking back at Arthur.  

"We can have names?"
"I didn't know we can have names!"
"It wasn't in the manual."
"Yeah...nothing was in the manual though."
"Yeah, we were just told to say it was in though."
"Alright, well.."

They all turn to Ishirou, "Alright boss, what do you want us to do first?" They say in unison.  Ishirou considers his options and then looks around.  "Take a break until I get back to you, and let the others know."
Arthur Lowell >Arthur: Alright, quest done!

    Arthur stands from his squat, plants hands on his hips, and beams. "Alright! There we go, IDEALS right into SOLUTIONS. That's what you were HERE FOR, right? Like, LEARNIN' about SHAPIN' THE WORLD? KEEP IT UP."

    He regards the robots, returning to their break, and then Ishirou. "WELCOME TO SECUNDUS, I guess! Good an intro as any ya gonna get. Picked a nice LANDING SPOT. I mostly chill around ya BIRD PAL'S place, but I'll keep up VISITING if ya keep runnin' into PROBLEMS." Looks like he's quite happy to keep backing the Paladins on this one -- perhaps simply because the Concord already have such backing. He's gonna wander around a bit more now, probably, seeing if he can prod at more of this strange and vast factory...
Ishirou Ishirou nods to Arthur, with a smile.  It was a clever solution...and if now that he has control he can start shaping things.  

"Thank you, and don't be a stranger, Arthur!"