bakerstreet | broken

broken

the broken meme.

You may once have been a great hero, or a modest regular person. But something has pushed you past the limit. There's simply no going back to who you used to be. To be seen now, your friends, your family, would they even recognize you? Your savior was too late. The pain was too much. The pleasure was too intense. You've been short-circuited.

You're broken.

A. Post with the usual stuff! Note somewhere if there are any options you aren't okay with.
B. People can reply, with a roll for their characters or ask if you want to roll for yours in that thread.
C. Probably some triggers involved here. Read at your own discretion, etc.

1. Pain.
You've been pushed beyond your limits and become light-headed, 'floaty'. The sight of your own blood doesn't provoke a reaction anymore, and seeing a friend might cause you to smile, or talk strangely. You might not even recognize them. It doesn't hurt anymore. It's alright now.

2. Lust.
No, no, no became yes, yes, yes. Dignity and self-respect have faded, replaced by an insatiable and alien feeling of want. You've reached a point where shame doesn't even occur to you anymore. Your eyes seem out of focus and your smile doesn't look right. Look, I've made so many friends who like me...! Do anything to me if it feels good.

3. Shock.
What has been seen cannot be unseen. A revelation about a friend, a loved one, an enemy- something has shocked you in a way you can never reverse. It may change not only the way you look at someone or something, but also the way you see the rest of your life. I saw nothing, I saw nothing, I saw...

4. Oppressed.
What's it like outside my cage? Your spirit of rebellion or confidence has been cracked, and your rescuers might not be there in time to salvage what's left of your spirits. You've long since accepted that getting away from this oppression is impossible- Perhaps you've even become attached to it as the only way to live life. Yes, sir. No, sir. Sorry, sir.

5. Corruption.
Something has eroded you. You're not like you used to be. You're obsessive, your face is darker. You may even see who you were before as weak or useless. Whether it's a magic ring or Phazon infecting your body, you're going grimdark and it's looking a little too late to pull you out of it. This power is far greater than what I had before! To think I used to believe in justice!

6. Hysteria.
When you talk, you don't make any sense. Pure Charisma Break. Maybe you were a god stripped of your might, or you've suffered a terrible defeat. Either way your ego has snapped, leaving you a total mess and unable to function. But how could this be? How could I lose?!

7. Desperation.
Where before you were airy, confident, in control of yourself, you're now a ragged and fuming pile of hopeless anger. As a fighter you may have been careful or even graceful; now you swing wildly, strike without precision. You simply cannot accept the situation, cannot accept your own fall. It's not over! I'm still in control! I can still fix everything!

you can mix/change/double-up/whatever on these. enjoy. reposted since it was really popular and hasn't been posted since!

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"NO!" Things went black and quiet, it wasn't as terrifying as she thought it would be. That other voice was there again, soft and kind and telling her she would be alright, he would find her and they would be ok. She could let herself drift, and while she drifted things became more cohesive.

The world came back online, this time she knew what she was, Beta emerged and looked up at the Director before she looked around. "Director?"

"Yes, that's right." He managed a thin smile at the glowing figure before him.

"Please forgive the abrupt end to our previous session." Glancing at his data pad showed that she was running well within normal ranges. Far calmer than earlier.

"Do you remember the question I asked you then? Can you answer it again for me now?"

"You asked me my name." Her voice had a slight tinny resonance but it was unmistakable, especially now that she was more calm. The hesitation was all but gone, the strength of tone and depth were there. There could be no doubt as to who it was.

"The Counselor called me Beta." Which she supposed she was, she really had no basis for thinking otherwise..except memories, feelings, flashes. "But my name is..was, Allison."

"The Counselor was correct, your designation is Beta."

He couldn't get his hopes up... but if there was a chance, if there was any chance at all. He had to know. How much of Allison was really in there?

"You must not refer to yourself as Allison around anyone other than myself. Is that understood?"

There were far too many risks involved. He was violating ethics regulations as it was with creating Alpha. He was potentially doing far more than simple ethics violations just by keeping Beta activated.

She was an unregistered presumably 'smart' AI, he had yet to add any subroutines to her programming. If she was potentially Allison, he wasn't sure he could add the ones required of him.

"I am Beta." She nodded in understanding but moved closer to look up at the man.

"Why?" Bit by bit, as they all had, the personality was beginning to surface. When they first came into being they needed time to collate, to settle in before things could function smoothly. It wasn't unlike a child being born and needing to grow into itself. For her it began with the questions, Allison had always asked questions.

"Giving a name other than your designation could raise... issues." The exact nature of those issues were irrelevant right now. All that mattered was that she accept this fact. He couldn't risk her accidentally revealing the method of her own creation.

"Please trust that I have your best interests in mind. You are very important."

He smiled down at her, curiosity was a good sign. She was figuring herself out and he had to allow that process to happen naturally. He could force her to develop toward a specific purpose, insert subroutines from the outset to mold her to a specific task. Security, research even municipal oversight most Smart AI had their role in society predetermined.

But that risked damaging whatever might genuinely 'be' Allison. So he would wait and see, there would be plenty of time to add whatever was needed.

“I don’t like it.” The opinion came out with an uncanny crossing of arms and cocking of a holographic hip to the side. The AI was not pleased with the designation but didn’t say she wouldn’t abide by it. She might accept it but it was not her preference.

That other voice, the one which had comforted her told her again not to worry, she was something special, she would be alright. She wanted to go back to that voice, but she was out now and the world was so much bigger out here, she wanted to see more.

“I remember light.. sound.. Where did I come from?” Allison had died and only scant parts of the memory of what must have happened had survived. She trusted the Director, more than the Counselor, she calculated…felt? She felt that he intended her no harm.

"No, nor do I. But that is the way things must be, at least for now."

Her response was so purely Allison, right down to roll of her avatars eyes, he had to look away. The pain of his loss, never far from the surface, threatened to slip it's fragile bonds. He could do this, he'd have to if he was going to figure out what exactly caused her creation.

He regarded her sadly for a moment, then remembered himself. Carefully controlled facade slipping back in place.

"That is precisely what I hope to discover." He checked his data pad tapping out a few notes. "What else do you remember?"

A certain amount of memory from the template mind was to be expected, but generally it was assumed to be minimal. Too much bleed over was considered a flaw as it could potentially lead to instability. Still, he didn't see much risk of that here and he'd know to keep an eye out for it.

"I remember fighting, but there were so many." For the first time she sounded afraid flinching as recollection flooded through her. "Too many! We couldn't hold them odd and someone behind us, they ran and didn't check their footing. I tried to get to them, tried to stop them but they tripped the mine before I could reach them." The memory was enough to have her flailing back, arms over her face and falling to her knees.

"I couldn't reach them in time and...oh god...ohGOD! My family!" Her voice lost all human quality and sounded like static and over tight cables and fingernails on a chalk board. The AI was frenzied by memories of what had happened to the woman.

"Allison!" He regretted it almost as soon as he said it, he should have been more specific. As her panic grew he found himself fighting his own. He had to stay calm. More importantly he had to calm her.

"Listen to me, you are safe here! Your family is safe do you understand? You're safe now, nothing can hurt you here." He tries to keep his voice from shaking. If he couldn't calm her down, if this developed into some sort of feedback loop he would loose her. He'd have to shut her down and deactivate her. There had to be a way to get her out of it.

"Allison please, try to focus on something else. Focus on my voice." He couldn't loose her again. Not like this, trapped in a panic over her own death. He had to try to save her.

"Remember the first trip we took to the mountains. You wanted to go see 'real nature'... even though neither one of us had ever been camping you insisted that we learn to pitch a tent. But it got dark faster than we expected and we couldn't figure it out... we ended up having to sleep in the car." His voice is surprisingly calm despite the panic he's feeling. He has to be the calm one this time, even if the words escape her and she has no memory of the event, the tone is what is important. All he can do is pray that it works and keep his finger near the switch in case it doesn't.

The AI was still flailing, twitching but it was following orders. She looked up to him, trying not to shudder, trying to focus on him and not the flashes of memory.

The voice was soothing, like stepping into a hot bath, it worked it's way through as he spoke until the was only the slight and occasional tremor. She pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, head resting sideways on her arms. She listened, and memories that had no business being there were rekindled.

"It rained in the morning." Her voice was quiet, he'd have to lean in to hear it if he wanted to. "I was so mad...but you kept drawing faces on the window until I laughed. Some stupid story about something; you made up voices to go with it." She laughed, it was soft and only half there, but it wasn't the choked fear of before.

"By the afternoon you would never have known that it rained." He smiled at her.

She remembered.

He checked the read out of his data pad, watching things normalize and made a note to go back and review what script had been running at the moment she started to panic.
With any luck it could be excised and this problem would never happen again. She would never scream in terror like that again.

"Good. You're doing very good."

She was more calm now, the panic had left and she was quieted. He said she was doing good but what was she doing?

"Why am I here?" She wasn't who she remembered, because she could remember the end, there was no way she had survived that. So why then was she here and what exactly was she?

"I'm not yet sure." There was no point in falsehoods, she would realize the truth regardless.

"You're an AI, your purpose is to aid Project Freelancer."

"An AI." Well that made sense, but it made her shiver. She'd be alone now, AI were tools, things to be used to run equipment or menial tasks. She'd be alone and the idea hurt.

"I don't want to be left behind."

"Never." Yes she was an AI but he would not be using her for any trivial purpose. He told himself it was because of the nature of her creation rather than the resemblance to the real Allison.

He was a scientist and had to look at this objectively after all.

"You can be of vital assistance to the program... to me."

"To you?" Now she looked up, not quite unfolding but at least interacting more.

"The other...in there," She gestured to the containment pod where Alpha rested. "He's you, isn't he?"

"In a way, yes." He glanced over at where Alpha was stored. "That, is Alpha."

In a very skirting the law sort of way. With access to only a single AI the choice was vital to the project. He couldn't use just any AI for his research, he needed one that would understand the project and it's goals intimately, not just on a programed basis.

The fact that she was here hinted that his theoretical work on AI personality mapping could be put to... different uses. He now had the potential for more AI implantation experiments. More experiments meant better data, better data meant a more refined system and a better chance to develop a process that would be successful long term.
That meant saving lives.

Alpha had been there, when she'd come into being she'd felt him, heard him nearby. The voice that calmed her and told her things would be ok, it had been him. She nodded and uncurled a little more, her fright having passed now.

"What can I do?" What can't I do? She thought immediately. It was just her automatic response, a sarcastic quip tossed out even if she didn't say it aloud. That was how she interacted, jokes and comments diffused the emotional intensity. It came slowly back to her.

"I feel a little small."

"You are anything but small. Don't be mislead by the limitations of your current residence."

He brought up the Project Freelancer mission goals and sent her the file. The file listed the official military objectives for the project, reverse engineering the Mjolnir armor for use by average soldiers and experiments in AI implantation as part of the armor management system.

"For now, learn about what I hope to accomplish here. There will be plenty of time for you to take a more active role once you have adjusted."

She processed things quickly, eager to find a place, to understand why she was there. But some of the information made her pause.

"I don't want this. I don't want to be something in someones head." The idea seemed to actually frighten her. Becoming nothing more than an assistance program, she couldn't do that! She couldn't give up what life she had just to be a glorified calculator for someone.

"Then we will find something else for you to do." He couldn't force her into the integration experiments, it would ruin the chances of success from the start. Both parties had to be willing participants.

"You could assist in designing and testing the armor." She would have a more intuitive grasp of the subject, she had been a soldier after all. This was an area that he had a disadvantage in, her opinion could prove vital.

"I could do that, I liked the armor. I wanted a set of it when," Right, that was before she died. She went quite and tight lipped.

"And you will be there?" She looked up at him, almost as if she was afraid that if he wasn't she would be alone again, she didn't want that. Being alone, being in the dark, it was too much like she had died all over again.

"As much as I am able to be, yes." He nodded and smiled warmly. "I have a lot of duties to perform."

He was going to make sure to take time out of each day to check in on her and as much time to study her as possible. "You will have a whole team of people working with you."

The first response seemed to please her, if the readings were anything to go by. The latter however... did not.

"No! They'll know what I am!" She knew what she was and that was bad enough.

broken

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