bakerstreet | You are part of a machine, you are not a human being

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You are part of a machine, you are not a human being

NOT just A ROBOT
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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

[Not technically a robot since she doesn't really have a physical body, but an AI program counts, right?]

"OK sooooo don't be mad but I kinda may have downloaded you into my phone."

As far as things that Gwenpoole had done to keep herself relevant went...this was not the worst thing ever. But it was probably not the best thing either.

"In my defense Tony really shouldn't leave me alone with his computer. I'm very unreliable!"

For a moment, FRIDAY remains suspisciously quiet. Is she warning his creator? Is she simply figuring the new situation. Either way, once she speaks there's a hint of humour in her Irish lit.

"I will not challenge that logic, Miss Poole. Now, how can I help you today?"

"Phew! Oh good I thought you'd be SO MAD but I mean...listen. I know nobody REALLY believes me when I say I'm from another universe but I am and in my Universe you are popular but you don't get NEARLY enough screen time."

This is said as Gwen slips through her "White Space" between panels. If Friday uses the phone's camera she might be able to catch a glimpse of panels of other superheroes lives drifting by as Gwen finds the panel she's looking for and slips back into her apartment.

"So I figured we could do some kind of crossover adventure together! Maybe leverage some of my good ratings to get you your own series! Or at the very least I get to make a sexy voiced new friend!"

"FUCK! Shit! ...Fuck."

Tony's staring at holographic displays that won't stay still. The glitching is only the beginning of it. Two screens are scrolling through their own programs and coding and he can see the commands deleting in front of him. Out of the corner of his eye there's one with porn playing that he knows he's never looked at before.

His whole system is about to Blue Screen of Death on him.

"Fuckwhatisit? Virus? Hacker? Electromagnet? FRIDAY? FRIDAY, can you shed some light?"

"B-b-BoSs?"

The thing about FRIDAY is that, like her creator, she usually exteriorizes however she is feeling. Today, even though her voice is half hidden but a clear glitch that seems settled in quieten her down, her clear terror is easy to hear.

"I- I c-CaN't teLl f-for sUre. I think -- SoMe0ne--- InSide...!"

"FRIDAY?" He looks up into the air, shock clear for a moment as he realises that whatever is wiping his system is also accessing his AI. Fuck! He's already lost Jarvis, he can't lose FRIDAY too.

She's his... ~~friend~~ his girl Friday!

"Hackers? How are they getting past my Firewall? No, actually, that's not important. Can you find where they're getting in?"

The screens around Tony glitched, seeming to illustrate the erratic way in which FRIDAY's voice disappeared, only to be heard clearly and more distant from one word to the next one.

"...vUlneRabiliTiES... inSiDe JoB, bOs--"

Is it possible for AI to be afraid? She is aware that her Boss has made her a sentient as his stretched out morals had allowed him. For years he had discussed where the line stood while developing JARVIS, her 'older brother'. It only made sense for her creator to ignore those worries when her time came.

Now, she wonders if its fair.

FRIDAY doesn't waste a moment though. As the terror of disappearing starts becoming a reality, all she can do is hope to expose whoever has betrayed Tony. All resources still available are switched, focused on finding the source of the falling of every system. Lights start going off around Tony, his music system, every project he had been working on, but the screen before him seems to stabilize again.

And finally, precise data shows before him.

Edited 2020-02-22 15:08 (UTC)

Frowning hard, the strain is clear on Tony's face as he struggles to hear what FRIDAY tells him. An inside job? But who? He keeps such a tight circle. He trusts those that have access implicitly, and that's hard won trust after Obi. How could he ever be fooled again?

"FRIDAY? FRIDAY, are you still there? Don't go. Don't leave me alone. I need you, I need you to help me fix this. Shit."

He's resorted to tapping actual physical keyboards now, his hardlight holograms completely lost. The clack and slap of him hitting the keys to the point that he almost breaks them is ringing in the room. Then in the glow of emergency lighting, the answer. In part.

"A TROJAN?!? A trojan virus? How the fuck did... Peter..." The kid had wanted to install some silly new game on Tony's system. Something about a duck or goose? He'd brought a flashdrive with him.

It's usually the silliest of things, isn't it? It's a good thing her creator programmed her with such a good sense of humour, because right now FRIDAY can definitely find the humour in the situation.

Would she be the same as before? Would Tony be able to fix her?

"D0n't lEt mE..."

She was having trouble focusing, following what Tony was doing, even though she now knew he had got that last message in a bottle she had blindly thrown into the ocean.

Her beloved was fixing it.

"I'm SCaRed."

Edited 2020-02-22 20:49 (UTC)

Maybe it's because Peter's on his mind now, and right now not in the best of lights, but the fading, flickering voice of his AI program makes his chest pull tight. He remembers vividly Peter turning to dust in his arms and now he's going through it again on a virtual, coding level. But she is, isn't she? She's disintegrating in front of him and he can't even hold her in his arms.

The thought crosses his mind that he wishes that he'd made a backup FRIDAY, but he didn't know when he installed her that he'd... feel so strongly for his program. That's foolish, in hindsight: He mourned Jarvis when he became Vision, but he'd also had a real life person that he'd lost in that case. He hadn't realised that it was the AI personality not the emotional connection to a dead friend that he'd grown.

That doesn't track though, does it? The reason that he hadn't made a back up was because it seemed inhumane to give a program autonomy if you could threaten to wipe them and reinstall an earlier version if they didn't do what you wanted. He'd known it deep down.

And now she was dying. He didn't know if he could get to the root of the virus in time.

"Just hang on, FRIDAY, honey. I'm here. I'm working as fast as I can."

Edited 2020-02-22 21:14 (UTC)

That's something she adores about Tony. The way he so casually drops those petnames and yet how few of the people in his life had earned them. She's always been proud about that, how her 'dad' had never shied-away from being loving towards her.

Lacking a body, that's all she can get from him. That's her whole world. Every once in a while, earning those affectionate scraps, that's what makes everything worth it.

There's no point in asking if he would miss her. She knows he would. He will someday, because nothing lasts forever. Who's to say she won't change, if she doesn't disappear completely today? JARVIS changed. JARVIS is dead too.

"Y0u'rE eVeRyTHing t0 m--"

She means it literally, he tells himself as he rushes through pathways and pulls out the rogue coding. Literally because she was made for him, she can only really talk to others if he puts people in the position to be able to.

She talks to Karen though, doesn't she? Peter's AI. She has a friend, and that's just coincidence because it never even occurred to him that a self aware AI might want more than just him in their life. He's glad though. He's glad she's known friendship.

"I can't live without you," he tells her because it's the truth. "When this is done, I'm going to give you-fuck."

At first glance, the code is scrambled. But he quickly realises that he's found the root of the virus. It's tangled and spread like the roots of a weed in amongst important stuff. He's going to have to be careful what he deletes.

She knows that's the truth. And in that awareness there's something that becomes lighter, that almost seems to shine. She knows it's code, an illusion, but FRIDAY is also aware that even though she was made to translate these numbers, there's definitely meaning behind them. Purpose. Truth.

"wHaT ARe y0u GiVINg mE?" She urges, not wanting to let go. Needing to know. She needs that sense of hope, even if she is wiped before it can turn into a reality.

"Y0u CAn do iT, BosS."

He's quiet a moment, scowling and scrolling and hitting keys. He needs to concentrate, to make sure he doesn't delete the wrong parts, that he isn't the one that kills her in the end.

But the silence stretches out and the last thing in his head is FRIDAY's voice, distorted and almost popping with glitches, but still with that lilt that she's enhanced and made more appealing from the responses he's shown to it, many of those responses very much nonverbal.

Fear starts to set in that she's gone and he's too late. He looks up to answer.

"I'll give you your own body, baby."

Edited 2020-02-22 22:27 (UTC)

She doesn't realize it, the moments when she is gone. But data lets her know there's moments when she loses consciousness, gaps where her program glitches completely. Every second she comes back she is aware that she was gone. It's terrifying but also comforting. There's nothing once the world ends.

Her silence stretches, she can't quite find peace in her newly gained knowledge. Not even in the fact that his Boss has promised to give her the thing she has wanted above anything else in this world.

Finally, FRIDAY breaks the silence.

"WiLL y0U hoLd mE?"

It's a line and he knows everything is a bit fuzzy and unprecedented when it comes to crossing it. He likes her though, he likes her humor, he personality and of course the bod he gives her will be pleasing to him. What would be the point in not making it pleasing?

It's a whole big thing to mull over, and he really needs to be concentrating on other stuff right now. Not to mention the wave of relief that she answered him.

"Yes. I'll hold you. I'll be so happy to come home and see you."

She wants to push this further. To ask about the one woman in his life that will probably won't be so accepting of this little plan they now share. She wants to ask something she already has an answer for: what material will her body be made of? They both know there's no point in make her as rigid and cold as the Iron Man suits.

She wants to know if he will make her a woman. She already has an answer for that too, but FRIDAY is desperate to hear it from him too.

"You got this, Boss. I'm already feelin' more like meself." Her voice is indeed clearer, that beloved accent he so seems to enjoy loud and clear. But she doesn't speak any further, those questions remaining censored as she is aware that the only way of getting her answers is letting him concentrate fully on his task.

Instead, she gives little clues that she is still around, that little by little he is getting her back. Things lighting up again, screens that come back to life. The quiet buzz of machinery waking up.

Only when his systems come back online does he breathe a sigh of relief. There's still some traces of the virus, but once his firewall is up and running again it should clear that.

God, he needs to call Peter and warn him. Karen... Its like finding out you have an STD and needing to call around exes...

Huffing out a laugh, he shakes his head.

"I've not dealt with anything that intense for a while. My brain feels fried... FRIDAY? How you doing?"

The system is back up, even the music started, picking up again exactly from the second the media player had shut down. She makes sure she lowers the volume after letting him know everything is on working order. FRIDAY wants him to be able to hear her loud and clear.

"Like I was away for a second to freshen up." She teases, relief clear on her voice. "I can pick up from here, my hero."

To freshen up? Of course she makes light of it now, but it definitely didn't feel like that a moment ago. She was... She said that she was scared. That wasn't just programming picking out appropriate things to say. She really was scared.

"Thank you, FRIDAY. When you're done, can we talk?"

He huffs out a breath and scratches the back of his head. He needs a drink, but he'll have to settle for a smoothie and pizza.

"Of course, Mr. Stark. Is there anything else I can do for you while I work on having all systems back up?" Her tone is all business now. She knows he has saved the day, even though she is the one who will be swipping the rest of the mess that trojan left around.

She is indeed eager to talk, wondering if he is willing to keep up his word. Those things he said? He was offering all she's ever wanted.

Twenty minutes later things are mostly back to normal.

"How's that smoothie?" She asks. "What did you want to discuss, sir?"

He's upstairs, stretched out on one of his more comfy seats. Now that the threat is contained he's having a bit of an adrenaline drain. There's work to be done to improve the gaps in his security, but he's spoken to Peter and sent over a program to help Karen check all of Peter's tech, the rest can wait.

"For something that's such a bright shade of green, pretty good actually." He's eaten far more pizza than drank the healthy drink, though.

"I wanted to talk to you about what I promised you, earlier."

Of course he does. For all people have said about him, he always keeps his promises. He is a man of his word. He is perfect.

"Is it actually happening? Are you giving me a body?" There's a chirp in her tone, quite the contrast to what she sounded like half an hour ago. She's clearly delighted, not simple code reacting to what is expected of her. Surely he will notice that in her tone.

There it is: Excitement. Such a hard emotion to fake, even for humans. It goes to confirm what he was thinking earlier, or at least doesn't tell him that his beliefs are unfounded.

"Yes, I'm giving you a body," he smiles and realises that soon he'll have a direction to smile at, not just air. "I wanted to ask you about your expectations, what you want from having a body."

Does she expect to be a slightly more functional droid than Dum-E? Does she want to be a robot? Does she want to look human? Does she want to be able to leave Stark Tower?

She knows exactly what she wants. Time is something AI experiences differently than humans do and, what might have taken a biological being time to develop, FRIDAY has known with details from the very first moment the question popped up. And that was the very first day she started running through his systems.

"I want to be barely a wee shorter than you, slim but not a twig that might break as soon as you see it. I don't want massive breasts even if that disappoints you and bright pink hair. No point in pretending I'm a bio creation."

That probably gives the hint of what kind of body she wants.

"Also, you'll have to figure how to make me quite light, because I plan to sit on your lap quite a bit."

Edited 2020-02-23 19:44 (UTC)

Resting his chin against his thumb, index finger against his cheekbone, Tony hums and nods as FRIDAY tells him very precisely what she wants. It makes him smile, though it's no surprise that she's so certain about what she should look like.

"You, uh? Oh." That last bit takes him by surprise though, and it takes him a second to catch up. He reaches for his smoothie to take a sip and try to cover his mental short circuit up. "Well, I um - I guess if you're not going to let me have the breasts I want, I better make sure you have a well rounded ass. I want to be comfortable if you're going to spend so much time on my lap."

He's flirting with his AI. Not bantering. Flirting.

Noticing his surprise, she lets out a soft chuckle. One he surely won't be able to miss.

"I only expect the nicest, round arse, Boss. But you'll have to test it, because I want us both to approve of it before we settle for something." After all, she expects them both to make use of that body.

"I'll be picking my clothes but, will you surprise me with gifts like you do with Miss Potts?"

She might be his woman, but FRIDAY is his creation. His special girl.

( ooc | technically not a robot but he is afflicted with plagas that can send him in a zombie like mode? )

[ he's an alien tourist with pretty open ideas when it comes to partners soooooo...]

[ the owner. one probably in over her head. ]

( while not a robot in canon, i'm vaguely interested in having her play the 'robot' role as an AU where she was created to be a robot detective like many of the others of her model that were created. )

[I couldn't not!]

[Augmented human, gets along better with 'bots than people because generally speaking the 'bots don't judge. I'm down for something semi-canon or whatever, I'm good at making his backstory fit into all kinds of things.]

[ SO here for future Claire being decades or centuries old and getting a robot pal. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You are part of a machine, you are not a human being

FRIDAY || MCU || OTA

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Bad end... but kinda?

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leon kennedy ( resident evil 4 )

dolores abernathy ( west world )

peregrine | oc | ota

addie fletcher | oc | ota

Paige | Tron Uprising

Dolores Abernathy | Westworld | OTA

kyouko kirigiri | dangan ronpa ( ota )

Wanda Maximoff | MCU

Techie | Dredd | OTA

Claire Bennet ∞ NBC's Heroes ∞ OTA