Scene #7782: Kore of the Problem

Owner	Pose
Persephone Kore	Of course they aren't meeting on the Sapient Heuristics station. I just got done moving that thing to where you won't find it!! Even I have more sense than that. But the locale is still familiar: Zubrin Station, the refueling center and traveler's rest stop where the Paladins first accosted Dylan Cruise. As he might recall from his last visit: Zubrin Station exists in the year 1987, between Earth and Mars (or is it Ares?). The red planet looms heavily through its windows. The Multiverse has been kind to this overlooked, nearly unremarkable world. Unified early and then left largely to its own devices, profiting from trade but untouched by war, it has blossomed into something greater than its calendar date suggests. Arriving at Zubrin is easy. Unhurried traffic, heavier with goods than people, is always arriving and leaving thanks to its position near a space Warpgate. Smaller, artificial Warpgates on the station itself serve as the entrance for people who don't feel like enduring the majesty of space to get there. Zubrin is beautiful, a gem of shining glass and graceful white plastic. It is a place trying very hard to transform from a crossroads into a destination. Flowering plants in aerogel soil hedge its walkways; peaceful fountains fill the unnatural stillness with the quiet bubbling of water. Little shops line the alleyways, too. Novelty space foods, models of the station itself, books and tapes (they still use tapes?) for long space journeys, and much-needed coffee for the long-haul pilot are all available. There are even cute, retro American-style breakfast diners.
Persephone Kore	Persephone gave I4 the address of a cozy coffeeshop- "ARES GROUNDS", it's called- but he hardly needs directions. He can find his way there solely by following the immense weight of my heart, the way my intentions subtly twist the world and pervade one's heart. It feels warm, and soothing, and possessed of an ominously vast gentleness. It is the feeling of being a firefly held in a child's hands; they marvel at your beauty, and are so careful not to crush you. It's so easy to relax into it. It's so easy to see how one could fall under her sway. But, at the same time, it feels too earnestly kind to ever be a bad thing. The coffeeshop itself is nearly deserted this time of night, which must be why Phony chose it. It's pretty, with a faux-jade-tiled floor and flowering vines climbing trellises that act to separate the tables. R Phony sits at a corner booth with a window to space, wearing her usual clothes. Her hands hold a big mug of hot cocoa. Her eyes are shut, but her smile hints that I know you're there! Come on in~
Ishirou	I4 remembers the station well enough, though this time he gets a better look at it. At the beginning of the mission, he was very dour and self-focused and didn't really focus on anything but inward. Though in the fight with Dylan...well he guesses a thought took over, and it wasn't exactly a good thought when he reevaluated it. He also looks absolutely dejected at seeing their use of /tapes/. The very thought was so bad because tapes as a medium were awful. Also, how do they manage to not get completely wiped anytime they go out on a mission? Rubbing his head he decides to skip on wondering about that because it wasn't why he was here. Even if the information medium bothered him enough to actually give it more than a passing thought. In the shop, he orders himself various arrays of tea. He's going to need to be comfortable...but he also wants to test out different teas for something unrelated. Sitting down with Phony was...conflicting in some ways. The aura of comfortableness was nice, in fact, he just kinda wanted to sink into that because it's hard to be so cozy. On the other hand...there is the thought that Lilian has put there. The paranoid 'she makes you feel this way' and 'she's doing it to control you' the thoughts that feeling this way around her is ultimately dangerous to let him fall into. He sighs because he knows better than to immediately fall to any judgment, especially because he was here was to try and find the truth...well partially. The truth was something he came here for, but it was more personal. He wants to know if that body he had was not just a fleeting dream...if it was something he could have or some way to obtain some sort of personal...form. It's a question that holds back so many different feelings, so many twisted problems. "Hi," he says, a simple greeting compared to the ideas, thoughts, and emotions that swirl inside him. "Sorry, I'm sort of here over something very personal and selfish to me, and...I know I haven't done you right," he says and there is a pause, "Though I am not sure if it was wrong or not. I'm only sorry that people that weren't involved got hurt."
Persephone Kore	Other people in the station are subtly affected by her aura too, even if they don't understand why they feel happy and safe, and it becomes more pronounced as one gets closer. Baristas are usually justifiably in a poor, or at least brisk, mood; this one seems utterly relaxed, with a cheerful smile on his face. "And... that's your order? Right away, sir." Phony's resting her cheek in her hand as I4 sits down. She's smiling the indulgent smile that her face was built for; any other expression would almost feel wrong. All those worries, all that anxiety. What have they been putting you through, I4? So tense, but tension never helped anybody. I hope you'll let me help! His inner thoughts are transparent to her, and they really make me want to take care of you! But when he opens his mouth to speak, her expression drops, now regarding him from a distantly sad neutral. "Nobody who wasn't involved got hurt," she says. "Because everyone was involved on purpose. Even the kids. It was Lilian who had the idea for everything, wasn't it? And it was Lilian who couldn't stand to see those kids happy. Now they're sad, and scared, because their home was broken into by people with swords and guns." She averts her face to look out the window, her lips forming a slight frown. "I'm sorry Lilian used you to hurt us. I know you didn't mean harm, because I can see it in your heart. But don't say awful things like 'I'm not sure if it was wrong or not'. If you want me to forgive you, of course you have to admit it was wrong."
Ishirou	"Sorry, maybe that didn't...come across as clearly as I meant it," I4 muses, it's a hard thing to communicate... "I'm not sorry for believing in Lilian. I want to believe she didn't do it to specifically hurt those children...or to hurt anyone, but that her concerns were what she said. She saved me from those who wanted me dead and helped me find the truth of what I...what androids are." That... the truth was not far from the surface. The horribleness that he was both an artificial creature and the soul of a human used in a strange thing to bring him into life. That when he found the truth, his creators sent assassins...and then the closest person to him. "I do think something is wrong...I don't know what. Not...exactly, I think there is more going on that I can't put my finger on," he says rubbing his head. "Go and I aren't completely convinced you're the monster she is making you out to be, or that your home is doing this to turn out monsters to fight for the Concord.." "What I learned from the data I got, and I watched the fight once I recovered enough to decide I wanted to be here and talk to you...things don't add up," He breathes, "But I can't also dismiss that you could make anything sound completely fine to me if you wanted. It's that same...feeling that I want to believe you're not going to sit here and.." Psychic Zombie slave is the word that comes to mind because it's the joking phrase that came up during the talking with other paladins... "Sorry, it's a phrase in progress..." he says, looking a bit sorry about it.
Persephone Kore	Persephone slowly turns her gaze away from space to take a sip from her mug of cocoa. She acknowledges I4's explanation with a little nod as she sets it down, then rests her cheek in her hand again thoughtfully. You've gone through some horrible things, haven't you? In a situation like that, with Lilian as one of the only people standing by you... I understand why that'd make you trust her. "I believed in her, too," Persephone says earnestly, turning her eyes down to stare at the swirling cocoa. "I don't know if I still do. I'm not strong enough to really hate her, even though maybe I should. And I'm not strong enough to forgive her either. It's all just too awful." The idea of making people 'psychic zombie slaves' seems to genuinely startle her. She sits up a little more upright, eyes widening. "Could I really do that...?" It's as if the thought genuinely never occurred to her. Then she laughs a pretty, sincere laugh and leans back in her seat. "That sounds horrible. Why would I do something like that? I love people just the way they are!" A little pause. She taps I4's leg with her shoe under the table, and smiles with a refreshed warmth. "I don't know how she manages to make herself believe I'm really that bad. But I promise I'm not. And you're here, aren't you? So that means you've already decided to trust that I'm not the monster she thinks I am." A little pause. Then, less cheerful: "Or, you're desperate enough to be human that it seemed worth the risk."
Ishirou	I4 starts on some tea, considering the taste for a moment. A bit bitter, he thinks...he'd prefer something milder, and then moves to a different cup. It seems to work, as he is a bit calmer. There is a lot to work through, both for him and to really come to terms with this. "I really don't know if you could, or if you don't because it's not in your nature or character? Or if the distinction /matters/ when it comes to dealing with you...and people who embody that alien concept," he says. "Also...it's something that's interesting to me? Everything I learned at your home was incredibly fascinating!" he admits. "It's also why when people considered grabbing the physical drives, I pushed against it. There was a real chance that the data could be lost.." I4 hates losing knowledge. He hates it more than anything, he equates it to murder in a sense. The loss of knowledge is something so grievous that it'd explain his massive annoyance when he was cut off, as opposed to being slightly inconvenienced, he was prevented from learning. Though, balanced out by the fact the knowledge wasn't in danger. The nudge and talk about Lilian cause him to sigh a little. He's really torn here because he BELIEVES in his friend, but he's also seeing something happening that is making him really concerned. "I can't say for certain if it's true, but I think from what I've heard, and seen, and experienced..." "I think she is considering you as if you were her mentally, and not...well, like she's expecting you to be more like she thinks SHE is..." he looks a bit gloomy at that. He can't also just say 'maybe it's something that was triggered by just meeting you'. It's not PHONY's fault, right? It's not like she went around to people and went 'look at me I'm so cute and invincible and have a keyhole sweater and rock it.' Though the comment on his desperation causes him to frown. "I..." he pauses. "I can't deny that's some of it. As I said, it's...very selfish. We say and push forward the best part of something, and hide the bad parts...but I can't do that very well. I did decide to trust you, I decided that what I was seeing when I went over what I did was conflicting with what was being put down by Lilian..." I4 looks, exhausted. He's tired in a way that seeps into his soul, and deep down part of him doesn't even keep up the facade that he isn't very well. There are injuries that haven't healed, despite his friend's attempts...in fact it's why he's here now, it's why he's being open. "Blemishine called me out on this too, and...I did admit that it was a wrong way to come at this." "So...I'm sorry. It's unfair to you.."
Persephone Kore	"Ahaha. Our work is amazing, isn't it? I can't share the technical details- because I don't know them, but also because it'd be a little bad!- but I can tell you a lot of things, to sate that curiosity of yours. It's really cute how eager you are to learn!" Phony reaches across the table to grab two packets of sugar, then rips them open and pours them out on the table-top into a little pile. The grains swirl as if caught up in a tiny dust-storm, then assemble themselves into incredibly elaborate shapes: first a tiny Eiffel Tower with all its spokes and arches, then a snowman, then a three-dimensional model of the Solar System with the planets moving in their orbits. Persephone isn't concentrating. She's not even looking at them. "It's magical, isn't it?" (Not literally! Your magic-senses won't find anything!) "I'm more real than the universe. So if I want something, it just happens, without needing a cause. Wouldn't it be beautiful if everyone could be the same way? Then the world would just be the shape we all decide together. And we'd never be hurt, or deprived, or trapped in bodies we don't like." She pauses for a moment. The sugar compresses itself into a diamond, then a teeny adorable star, then an itty-bitty black hole, and then just simply disappears. "But Lilian already has a power like mine. 'Cause-without-effect'. You've noticed it, haven't you? Even though she's kept it hidden from you. The way she just appears and disappears, without using magic. The way things just sometimes happen around her." "Maybe she thinks it should be hers, and hers alone. Maybe that's why she's so mad. But I can't feel her heart to tell." Phony slides out of her seat and pushes herself up from the table, but then sits down next to I4 instead! Her arm drapes itself around his shoulders; her side is soft and warm, and her ribbed sweater feels like warm blankets you don't want to get out of on a cold morning. "... The pain you're feeling, I've felt it too. Having a body you don't like, that you didn't ask for, that signifies something terrible. It feels like it taints you. It's a gross layer between you and the world. Right? Asking me for a cure to that... I don't think it's selfish at all. If you'll let me help, it'd make me really happy, actually!"
Ishirou	I4 literally can't help himself and starts staring at the sugar. He watches it go through its new life span, realizing she's doing this like someone who likes to fidget might play around with silverware, or anything when talking. Eventually, it sucks itself into a black hole and is gone. I4 considers this, is this metaphysical? He does scan it, despite being told it's not magic. Pataphysical? Silly, if you think about what it MEANS to be pataphysical, but also it'd make sense given that Phony seems to impose her will around herself, making a new narrative and world that she wishes. "...There was one thing I was looking up before I was cut off, and something I was...curious about. I can also understand if you don't want me to know, given the situation. I know the spark that your powers come from is an alien concept. I was trying to piece together what it /was/ before...well.." he shrugs. Then that aura of comfort is /right there/ next to him. It's snowing like crazy outside and he just wants to pull the covers over his head. He just lets himself melt into the embrace and listens because right now he's /extremely tired/. He's pushed hard, a lot and often, trying to be in the world, but also feeling unconnected? Some of those feelings run deeper. Is he real? Is being alive alright given his existence was created by robbing someone else of life? Being told for years he was just a tool, and to find out that he wasn't a tool at all but being lied to. That others he knows are also being lied to. Not just that, but, I4 has always admired humans. He wanted to get to know them better, to experience and maybe even indulge himself with their stuff. He just always thought he was never capable of fully being one. It's not that he hates being an android even, even with all that he knows. He's just always had that connection to humanity. When he touched it that day it was like a light had been flipped. He realized why he had the fascination, and what he needed...and then suddenly he realized it was a cruel joke, a taste he couldn't actually ever /have/...and combined with the crushing weight of his reality he couldn't bear it. He collapsed. He didn't even realize it, but he's crying again because these memories and what she's saying is true. It's nice to be told that WANTING something wasn't selfish, after being told for so long that it was wrong to be anything but I4, a tool. "...Can...can it be cured..?" he asks.
Persephone Kore	I4's scans of the black hole reveal that it is an actual, factual, physical black hole, with no magic whatsoever involved- just matter crunched beyond the singularity point by unimaginable forces. Its evaporation ought to expel a monstrous amount of energy, but somehow that just doesn't happen, because I don't want it to! "Where does it 'come from'," Phony repeats thoughtfully, hugging I4 to her side. She smiles a warm, beautiful eyes-shut smile, resting her chin on her opposite hand to look at him. "That's a really smart question!" She draws a circle in the air with her finger, and the fog from her hot cocoa fills the circle for demonstration. "Humans have come up with lots of ideas. Sometimes an idea will expand the things humans can do, forever. Language, mathematics, the scientific method..." Little holes appear inside the fog-circle with each name, marking points in idea-space. "All of those things unlocked capabilities we didn't have before. And across all the worlds, trillions of humans have come up with them millions of times independently." "Do you think there are any new ideas that could redefine 'what people can do'? Any ideas that humans have never, ever had before? The thoughts that a human brain can have... that's well-trodden ground." Phony taps a point outside the fog-circle, and a new little puff of fog appears at her fingertip: a point in idea-space beyond human thought. "Anything totally new, and as powerful as language or math, and yet that can be taught... would have to be conceived of by something beyond what humans are, but not beyond what they could be. Something new. A person that no other people have ever been. A human that humans are not." She glances back at him, eyes gleaming. "Do you know anyone like that? Haha, it's okay if you can't guess. But no more hints!"
Persephone Kore	Her arm-warmer, orange and soft, comes up to gently wipe his tears away. She leans in, embracing him with both arms and resting her face on the top of his head. "Shhhhh," she says, and it's hard not to feel soothed! "Of course there's a cure. Haha, do I look like I'm still unhappy with myself? ... I can share a little bit of that idea with you. I can teach you how to make yourself into whatever you want to be. If you really, really want to be human, then you'll become human, down to every cell." A long, slow sigh escapes her. Her chest falls, then rises again. This is nice. There's no sense of compulsion, but it's harder to feel anxious or stressed with Phony so close. "No deals. No bargains. You deserve better than what you've gotten, I4. It breaks my heart. I just want to help fix it. Will you let me?"
Ishirou	The scans show that it IS a thing and that because it IS it SHOULD do the expected outcome, but it does not, because simply...she didn't want it to. Cause without intended effect. No, cause with an effect redefined by her. The effect should be something, but she can change the laws of physics around her to be what she wants. I4 is squeezed because he has smart brain questions. Well, that's something he rarely gets, usually, it's 'shut up I4 that's too much detail'. She explains it, the idea that people...that humanity is a series of concepts and ideas solidified into a grouping. Well, probably not meaning to make it so simplistic, it's obviously more complex, but we're also trying to make the idea understandable. "You, obviously...Lilian you say is doing something like this..?" Is that the alien idea..? That the idea ITSELF was asking a question as simple as 'is that all humans can do'. Refuting the very idea that there isn't anymore more because we haven't found it using their own ideas, using that as a point of giving people powers with the very notion that there is MORE. Some things fall into place, why do they need to be so far apart, why children, why the isolation and home need to be so removed from humanity? Implanting an idea that questions humanity while being surrounded by humanity would simply drown out the idea before it could take hold. The children need time to manifest the idea until they could internalize it. Would that be the start of injecting the idea into human consciousness? Despite his tears and issues with himself, his mind is also going over all of these ideas in his head, trying to make sense of them. It's just /who he is/, and likely nothing is going to change that. His tears wiped away he looks a lot better, like releasing a lot of pent-up pain, or rather, the last release needed to finally pour it out to be examined and dealt with. "Really..." he finally says realizing that she's saying it, and well...she's /not/ lying. It's like a massive weight is being unloaded from him. Just being here and being held. Someone's speaking directly to his soul in a way that people normally can't to each other. She can see the pain and suffering he's gone through, not just hear and try and imagine through their lens. "Yes," he says as honestly as he can."
Persephone Kore	Ahaha. That's not quite the idea itself! How you get all the way out there, into that unexplored idea-zone... that's something else completely. But it does mean being all the way out there in space. The beautiful, sensitive, free children who will be 'humans that humans are not', who can grasp that idea before we've refined it enough for everyone everywhere- they could only be raised in space. You're almost right: the weight of Earth would crush the specialness out of them before they're ready. But that isn't important right now. What's important is you! "I'm so proud of you," Persephone says, her voice rich and sweet like smoke and honey. "You're being so brave. It's hard to believe, isn't it, that you can just have the thing you want so badly? It feels like it shouldn't be allowed." But it is. I allow it. "Thank you for giving me permission to help." The booth, the coffee-shop, the tea in your hands; all of those things gently fade away. They're distant. They don't matter. They aren't real; not like I'm real, not like you're real. The world is so awful. The world is so intrusive. It thinks it gets to define you. It thinks it gets to choose the face you show to other people, like it knows your heart better than you do. But it's wrong! And I can show you how to tell it that it's wrong. Across their psychic link, I4 can feel something being conveyed- with difficulty- that doesn't have words behind it. It is a shard of a truly foreign concept; he can understand it with effort, but there are no words in any language to describe what it is. One can only dimly glimpse its logical implications; where it came from, where it goes, the axioms from which it was derived- and all of them are equally indescribable, unsuited to the very structure of his mind. It is a lens through which he can see a new paradigm of thinking about the world. There is his real body- the human one, the one of flesh and bone, where he looks exactly like his heart wishes- and his fake body, the one furnished by the world, the one that says he's just a machine that talks. All he has to do is remind the world that it's wrong, that there's been a mistake, that he is more real and if it disagrees then it's wrong. It's as easy as breathing! Trust me. Y/N?
Ishirou	The thoughts about the concept are left alone for now. They can come back to this later because he imagines it's a conversation in and of itself. It's /extremely/ comfy to be around Persephone, like concentrated approval at being who he is. More than that, the acceptance at such a strange idea of being /who/ you want to be, and not what the world has determined for him. What others told him. "It is hard to say your welcome to something like that, I think.." he admits, 'thank you for letting me help you' is one of those weird things to say, but...maybe it's more because a lot of people can't open themselves up enough to be helped? The shop fades away, the world fades away, the tea he was trying out to get a sample size on tea fades away. Well, he can replace that tea, tea's cheap. The link forms as I4's inexperience with this sort of scape is obvious. I4's natural state is to try to understand what he doesn't know, and this idea is no different. How he interfaces with the world is that of scrutiny and understanding. Almost like a magnifying glass and a book, to look at everything closely, and then to write it down once known. The magnifying glass is also a pen, probably? However, the idea isn't able to be conveyed with words. The alien concept, likely. The only understanding he will have is one that is personal because the idea can't be passed as a normal idea can. It, however, is trying to show him how to think about the world. It's trying to show him how to take the shape of his own form, to leave the fake body he was given, and to shape one he wants. To be human, but on his own terms...with his own desires. He /wants/ it so badly, he's sure he's never wanted anything so badly in his entire life. The very idea is more easily accepted, because he wants to /tell off/ the world when it says he can't be real. Y
Persephone Kore	There is a slight exertion, a subtle mental strain. It's like breaking surface tension. But I4 makes it through. And then- The world obliges. There are no dramatic displays. There is no flash of light. From the outside, I4 already looked close enough to human that the shift which comes over him is fairly minor, other than any cosmetic alterations his heart really wants. From the inside, though... As the world fades back into focus, I4 can feel his heart beating, hear the ever-so-quiet rush of blood in his ears. The saltiness of his tears stings his eyes just a little. Robots can be warm because of their internal components, but this is a subtly different kind of warmth. If he looks at his fingertips, they're no longer perfectly still, but tremble just a little with the natural restlessness of flesh. It's a thousand tiny things, any one of which he could dwell on and savor. Somehow, his wireless capabilities are still there. He didn't ask for those to go away! If he scans himself, he might discover some small bits of technology still inside his head, hooked up to his- god, he has a brain now. It's too much to take in all at once. But don't worry. I'm here for you! Relax, I4. Deep breaths. Persephone is still hugging him tightly. Maybe a little too tightly, actually- he does need to breathe now.
Ishirou	The world changes. One moment he was what he was, the next he was something else. Something...someone completely different. Well, physically, mentally he was still I4. He could feel things differently now. The programming he had and the connection to the soul had a facility of what it was like to touch and feel things. However, /now/ it's vastly different. He has a heartbeat, he has to breathe, his scans are telling him he has a real brain instead of the positronic thing...but oddly things are still coming into him mentally like before. His ability to process hasn't changed, there are augments in his body instead of pure biologics or pure robotics. They're like cybernetics, but the line between when it starts being a cyberware and when it becomes a true part of him is impossible to discern. There is so much to take in, it's not overwhelming because he can't take it in the data, but an emotional response to being /human/ in a flash like that. The embrace steadies him, letting himself be handled like this while he's coming to get used to the new body and stop being overwhelmed. He can't believe it... He's crying, not because he's sad or because he's distressed...because he's happy. For the first time he's in a body he wants to be in, free from those people who told him differently...he's... Himself. It's such a simple thing to take for granted, but he's /finally/ himself. He loses his footing overcome with so many emotions at once it's impossible to tell! He even starts breathing heavier for a moment, probably because he's being held too tightly, but it's /such a feeling/ he can't bring himself to stop experiencing it.
Persephone Kore	Persephone's presence doesn't make those emotions any less intense; it can only comfort, grant reassurance and security. It's another layer to the hug that engulfs him. Phony's skin against his is, for the first time, like against like. "You're going to be okay," she says, and it's hard for I4 to tell if he's hearing it with his ears or his mind. Maybe it's both. "You never have to go back to being that way, ever again." Her own tears- just a couple!- drip down onto his head. Didn't I cry, too, when this happened to me? I can't blame him at all. Even if it's not the same... I'm so, so glad I got to help.