bakerstreet | NOT JUST A ROBOT

NOT JUST A ROBOT

NOT just A ROBOT
shipping meme

There's always a right tool for the job, be it as simple as a hammer for a nail or on up to the much, much more complex. In this, the near future, the new tool for the abstract, post-modern job is no longer from the humble tool box - it's robots. Robots have taken over most sectors, such as assembly, law enforcement, and even health care. Things run so much smoother when they're automated. Yet the most impressive factor is that robots have just recently begun to enter a sector previously believed to require human touch: the personal sector. From personal assistants to robo bodyguards to pleasurebots, most anyone who's anyone has a personal robot these days. Of course, humanity being the narcissistic charmers we are, all "companion" sector robots are made in our own beautiful image, or close to it.

But you know this. You have a personal robot, after all...or you are one.

Whether owner or robot, it's important to remember one key rule: robots, no matter how human they appear, cannot feel emotions. Any appearances thereof are programming in the AI.

Robots certainly, absolutely, cannot fall in love. Again, any appearances thereof are programming in the AI. If that's not the case, and "love" still seems present...

...well, a toll that no longer functions correctly may not be right for the job.

HOW TO PLAY ➟

Comment with your character, preference, and whether you want to play a human or a robot.
Reply to others.
Use the RNG to choose a prompt or pick one yourself.

OWNER ➟

Long Time Owner → You and your robot are a well-oiled machine, no pun intended.
New Purchase → Congratulations, you have your brand new personal bot!
Second Hand → Someone else owned this robot before you, but it can't be too damaged. There's no way you could afford a brand new one, anyway.
For Science! → Your interests in robots are purely scientific. No matter how yours begins to act towards you, honest!
Rescue → Whether you took them from the dump or from a bad owner, you brought this robot from the jaws of deletion.
Reluctant → You never wanted a robot, but you've got one thrust on you anyway.
Cruel → They're just a fancy computer, so you'll treat them however you like.
See the Humanity → Even if you know it's all machinery and programming, you can't help but see the human side of your robot. They shouldn't have to be a servant.
What's Real and What's Not → The lines are beginning to blur between real people and their emotions and your robot.
Incompatible → You can't be with a machine, either romantically or sexually. You're simply not compatible.
Too Engrossed → They say you've created a fantasy world. You're forgetting reality, or choosing to ignore it.
Don't Care → You won't listen to what the others say; you know how you feel.
Have to Pull Away → The close relationship you had with your robot has to be put aside for your own good.
Live a Normal Life → As much as you can, you and your robot live like a normal couple.
Bad End → Your robot is taken away, reprogrammed, or destroyed.

ROBOT ➟

The Perfect Robot → You know what you and exactly what you were made to do. You will not stray.
More Human than Human → Whoever programmed you made you to be just like a human.
Conflicted → There is no way you could have what they call "feelings." But what is this stirring in your circuitry?
Confused → Why do people treat you like a robot? You're a living thing, damn it!
Damaged → Somehow, you've been corrupted. You're a blank slate and have to be cared for, though it should be the opposite. Or it could be that you're showing erratic behavior that no robot should...
Shown Kindness → When you're treated kindly by a human, you are unsure how to process it. It makes you feel - content.
No Longer Just a Program → Your "love" and "affection" may have been shades and imitations at first, but that's not the case any longer.
Obsolete Model → You know you're old. Will you be forced to leave your master's side?
Jealousy → A robot should not feel jealous. Still, you envy those close to your master.
Job is Personal → You were programmed to protect or to serve, though you also do it because you...care
Second Chance → Your old master tossed you aside and now you are wary. But you've been given another chance instead of being used for scrap.
Rogue → There is no way you will be tied to the oppressive system. You refuse to serve the Living Things. Somehow, though, you've become aligned with one.
One of a Kind → There are no other robots like you, and perhaps you are intended for a sinister fate. Rather than face your true duty, you have escaped to take refuge with a human.
Specialty → You were created specifically for this one special person.
Reprogrammed → Because of previous defects, you were taken back to factory settings before. However, that treacherous virus, "love," is bubbling back up.
Android → You can't just forget the part of you that was - still is - organic.
Learn to Be Human → Despite the odds and the prejudices you both will face, you have decided to live as a free, living person with the one you care for most.
Bad End → You're to be junked, impacted, wiped clean, or taken away from your owner.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only | Expand All

[[Could be human as Vert, or robot as Green Heart (or as Vert, if you prefer your pleasure model blonde); leaning towards playing her as the robot. Interested in subverting a Bad End scenario - either she babbles everything that comes to mind and the sudden burst of personality sways her owner, or she's picked up for the Secondhand or Rescue prompts.]]

Karen had been intrigued for a while now by the various domestic robots that were gradually becoming commonplace, but never quite to the point of actually going out and getting one. She didn't really need extra help, and buying a robot just for companionship felt like admitting defeat.

So why was there a green-haired companion model plugged in and charging in Karen's living room? Well, it seems someone had dumped Green Heart by the side of the road as garbage. Karen had meant to just take her to the appropriate electronics recycling center, but the robot didn't look broken, and curiosity had gotten the better of her.

What didn't someone like about you? she thought as, at last, she powered the robot on.

There was a few moments of faint mechanical whirring as the robot stirred to life, and then her AI kicked in.

"-orry and it won't happen again. It was not my intension to make her feel in any way insecure. You don't have to-"

Apparently she'd been shut down rather abruptly and was still running her mouth while her senses booted up and assessed where she suddenly was. As much as a machine could, she sounded terrified.

Edited 2015-04-09 07:09 (UTC)

She was a very convincing machine, and for a moment Karen was rather frightened as well. Though the suddenness of the outburst from her perspective was certainly a factor there, too. Karen managed to catch part of that, though, and now the situation made a bit more sense.

But only a little bit. Making someone feel insecure? Was that really something you threw a robot away over?

"Hey! Hey. Calm down. It's all right."

Not that the notion of calming down should apply here, she belatedly remembered.

Calming down might not have been something that an AI literally needed to do, but the cry was enough to jolt the gynoid into releasing she must have been improperly powered down, making her stop talking and take stock of her situation more thoroughly.

"Forgive me." Green Heart moved into a kneeling position so she could bow. "May I ask where I am?"

The reason she'd been dumped went deeper than what she'd said, although she might have to be asked. She didn't know who she was talking to, after all.

"You're at the Minazuki mansion." If she was from around here, she'd probably know of the landmark. "I'm Karen Minazuki. I, er... found you." Next to a trash can seemed like information that didn't particularly need to be shared right now.

Karen studied the robot, reminding herself that that was what she was--she seemed more humanlike now that she was moving around.

"Can you tell me what happened?"

She knew the landmark, yes, and her AI finally catching up to the fact she'd had a blank spot meant she could guess the circumstances well enough. Not helping her humanlike appearance was the fact she suddenly looked mildly upset.

"My owner dislikes my appearance," she said forlornly. "His romantic interests see me as a threat, or an impossible standard. He blames his lack of romantic success on my presence."

The AI was only capable of assigning blame to herself, unable to directly articulate the hypocrisy - after all, he was the one who bought this model - no matter how clearly she saw it.

"I believe my systems were improperly shut down while I was attempting to apologize. This was not the first time. Sharp impacts have been known to disrupt my systems."

Edited 2015-04-09 13:09 (UTC)

Karen frowned. She could certainly see the "impossible standard" argument, but a robot was just a robot, right? Besides, this owner had presumably picked her out himself.

She was still searching her mind for something reassuring she could say (this wasn't a problem she'd personally encountered, to her mild subconscious chagrin) when she heard "sharp impacts." Falling over? No, that didn't seem to make any sense--and suddenly it occurred to her that the gynoid might have been attacked, presumably for what was clearly no fault of her own.

She put her hands behind her back where Green Heart wouldn't be able to see them tightening into fists.

"He would seem to have..." Don't say abandoned or thrown away or anything like that. "...relinquished ownership of you. He isn't your owner anymore." Karen wasn't sure she could just say that and have her believe it. If there was some special registration built in, they'd probably have to get it officially removed and risk the owner deciding to reclaim her. Or possibly do it unofficially by downloading some special hacking tool that would probably turn out to be a virus.

Her conclusion was exactly right, and perhaps just as tellingly, Green Heart was still kneeling. AI Companions could be trained or conditioned to behave in a way their owner desired, and this one had been quite thoroughly cowed.

Even not seeing her hands, the robot did pick up on the tension running through Karen's body, but before that factored into her reactions at all, the blunette mentioned a much more pressing concern, one that was as much a relief for her personality simulation as it was a source of distress.

"I agree that seems to be the case. My serial card has been removed," Green Heart agreed. "Correctly, it would seem. I've been... discarded."

For something that was designed with the sole purpose of serving to the best of her ability, it was clear as crystal that this realization was absolutely crushing to her.

Oh no no no no no. Nobody except Karen was allowed to be sad in Karen's house. Not even robots. This required immediate and decisive action. Fortunately, Karen had already been considering a plan of action that should help.

"The latest in a series of horrible mistakes on his part." Karen knelt down herself, bringing herself even with Green Heart. "At the risk of being overly presumptuous, would it be all right with you if I claimed you for myself?"

If an artificial personality could feel hope, Karen had just done exactly the right thing to give Green Heart a glimmer of it back. She looked Karen in the eye, nodding slowly.

"Without a serial card, I have no legal owner," she confirmed. "I'm yours to lay claim to." She paused, her AI weighing her coded loyalty to the person who had paid for her, against the situation she found herself in now. There was no question. The Third Law of Robotics allowed her to act in self-preservation in this case.

"You'll need some sort of memory card for me to format into a new serial," she continued. "The same kind you use for a digital camera will do. Then I can register you as my owner."

"Ah, just one moment."

Without further comment, Karen sprinted out of the room, going down a hall and up a flight of stairs. A few minutes later she returned, holding a memory card out toward Green Heart, completely out of breath.

It... wasn't strictly hers, but she'd planned to delete its contents before she returned it anyway, so probably nobody would know the difference if the card she "returned" to the school newspaper editor was actually a new one instead.

The way Karen acted so quickly cause a... complicated response in Green Heart's AI. Beyond the complexity of such a thing in the first place, that was. After her personality had been so thoroughly shaped to what it was now, to be so desperately wanted was so deeply confusing even her artificial emotions got tangled and jammed.

When she returned, though, Green heart shuffled around to turn her back, and held her ponytail to the side. "I'm unable to touch my own serial card port for security reasons," she explained. "It's on the back of my neck, but it's well-disguised to the naked eye. You may have to find the socket cover by touch."

Karen's main goal was that she didn't want poor Green Heart to be ownerless any longer than was strictly necessary, but she'd be lying if she said she didn't want her.

"All right," Karen said after finally catching her breath. First she looked, because you never know, the cover might have been left open or something, but it looked like she really was going to have to feel for it. Reminding herself she's just a robot, it's no different than trying to plug in a USB cable without looking, she rested her left hand on Green Heart's shoulder and started carefully running her right fingertips over the back of the robot's neck.

When Karen first laid a hand on her, Green Heart flinched - confirming once and for all her worst suspicions. But then her wandering finger were followed by gentle twitches, and even a shiver. Clearly her artificial skin was packed with touch sensors; whatever flaws this robot might have, cheap was not one of them.

Soon enough, she'd feel what she was looking for - a patch of skin that felt different from the rest, and with a bit of coaxing, would peel back like the rubberized cover it was, revealing a normal-looking card slot.

Karen froze for a moment when Green Heart flinched, and moved more slowly afterward. The later reactions were both relieving and... intriguing. Come to think of it, Karen hadn't thought to check just what particular type of robot Green Heart was. She silently thanked whatever company's engineers had designed her with the card slot in the back, where owners-to-be couldn't be seen blushing as they realized how else earlier comments and actions might have been taken.

After maybe ten seconds that felt like fifteen awkward minutes, Karen finally found the cover. The card slid in easily enough. "Ah, you can delete what's on there. It isn't important." Actually, it was photographic evidence that magical girls were real, but let's not split hairs.

They could discuss such details later, once this process was done and Karen had all the time in the world to find out about her new possession. Or companion, if she preferred. Either way, Green Heart nodded to her words, scrubbing the card and starting to write the data she needed as she hesitantly stood up and turned to face her new owner.

If Karen hadn't noticed it while carrying her, she would suddenly realize that as well as being well-endowed and curvy, Green Heart was also quite tall.

"Can you please tell me your full name?" she asked. "And is this your place of residence?" Her questions were a little bit... well, robotic, but once these strict questions were done, her virtual personality would take over again.

Karen was quickly finding that things she'd noticed about Green Heart seemed to hold different meanings now than they had earlier when she wasn't moving, and her height was a perfect example. Lying on the floor while Karen tried to figure out her charger, she'd been big and unwieldy. Standing right in front of Karen, she was tall and commanding. It was hard not to feel a little intimidated, especially since they were still close enough together that Karen had to look up pretty far.

"Karen Minazuki. This is my place of residence."

Subtly, Green Heart was shifting her weight back, moving away from Karen as subtly as possible to give her some breathing room. It was in her programming to try and avoid making humans feel discomforted by her presence, especially a new owner.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Minazuki." The robot bowed, against a slightly mechanical motion while her processors were quite busy. "My serial number and permanent identifier is 041-7794L. I have been assigned the default personal identifier Green Heart, although this may be changed at will."

Ah, that was better. Though in retrospect Karen could have just backed away.

She was mildly embarrassed to realize that, come to think of it, she hadn't actually asked the robot's name at any point, but that didn't matter now. "Let's leave it as-is for now. Perhaps once we get to know each other better I'll come up with something else."

Was she actually talking to anyone? She wasn't sure whether Green Heart was actually listening to anything right now that wasn't specifically prompted. Oh, well. If she couldn't hear, she wouldn't know.

For what it was worth, Green Heart was paying attention to what was being said. Her posture was already starting to relax as the registration sequence neared its end, the robot's personality values starting to load back into memory.

"One final question to complete registration: my model is... anatomically correct. I have a family friendly setting if you'd rather I never consider using such features. Would you like me to activate it?"

Oh. Well, that implied certain questions, didn't it? Karen took a moment to think it over before responding. Well, what she was really thinking over was her justification.

"No, thank you. That won't be necessary."

It didn't imply any intent, right? She was just keeping her options open.

Indeed,s he was safe of assumptions from the time being. But the strict part of the process was complete, and the robot's AI took over completely again. The first thing she did was kneel again, bowing her head.

"Thank you," said said. "Thank you so much."

"You're very much welcome." Once more, Karen knelt down as well. After thinking a moment, she patted Green Heart on the head. "Let's get along, all right?"

Green Heart still flinched - a personality simulation as powerful as hers was a double-edged sword, while it was incredibly convincing, she couldn't simply forget all the conditioning she'd been exposed to. But that same emotions did make her smile.

"All right," she agreed. "I'll do anything for you, Miss Minazuki."

NOT JUST A ROBOT

Vert/Green Heart | Neptunia | OTA

have a rescue

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"discarded" oh my god

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