[ Altius shrugs with a gesture of one hand. When he's presented a list of suggestive questions, he's inclined to see them for what they are. But see? Absurd. ]
You're not the first person to have that impression. [ The first here, perhaps, to be determined, but the first in the past several years, whenever he's gone out looking for dates? Absolutely not. ]
I suppose you must think me too boring to be interested?
Thank you, I suppose. [He says it with a chuckle.] I'm not as busy as I'm used to.
[Because yes, even with Two Whole Businesses to juggle, it's on such a smaller scale that even if the work load might be considered... difficult by anyone else, for him it's almost natural. And that's not counting his, ahem, extra-curriculars back home,
so he has? time? for something resembling relaxation.]
It's not only "riffraff" among our number, not to mention I've seen a few new faces. [But none he recognizes, which is... something he has complicated feelings about. Those feelings do not surface physically in any form or fashion.] Are you only here for the novelty?
[Once again Octavian pauses like he's only just realized something, and casts a cursory glance around for some of those new faces. He really does not expect anyone familiar, after such a lengthy stretch of time, but— just in case. After the dream, well.
Just in case.] If you see anyone who claims to know me: no they do not. Unless the face is the same.
[Anyway, novelty! Of course,] The novelty is always compelling. At least a little. But also...
[He looks around again, this time for Viktor, since they're trading off robot watching duty and it's Octavian's turn to muck around and collect cookies. He points when he spots him, and then points lower, to the attending robot. Look, look at him. He's so rotund.]
[Same face...? Doppelganger, twin, some sort of intentional copy? There is a set of two clones here. Who knows with all these different worlds and their conventions...]
Noted.
[He doesn't end up having the chance to ask with the change in topic, and to be frank, it doesn't really matter to him. When Octavian points, his brow furrows mildly at the sight of the man with the crutch, but his attention is turned quickly enough to the miniature construct—
project, is it.
He buries the thought, raising his eyebrows at Octavian.]
You've been busy, I see. Anything in particular you're hoping to see from it?
[The little robot is a much better topic, Octavian agrees. He brightens slightly just from Altius looking at it, obviously very pleased with himself.]
Independent navigation while completing tasks. [A beat.] Including not falling over.
[Balance is very tricky, especially when in a much more crowded place than Octavian's workspace with its conveniently cleared floor for walking practice. The robot isn't doing much of anything right now, but watch it long enough and it will toddle off to deliver someone, well, whatever it happens to pick up. Paper heart. Cup. Cookie.
The commands are very basic for this particular field test.]
[Altius notices that shift; the inventor is easier to read now that he has to worry less about dispersing, he supposes.
He wonders if this is the sort of satisfaction that drives Octavian. At the same time, he finds himself needing to put more effort than usual into pretending he's interested. Such is the choice he's made for himself, alas.]
Building a machine within a machine. [He shrugs one shoulder as he adds:] Supposedly. Are you a programmer as well?
[He's not even considering magic might be involved; given things like balance and responding to certain inputs are important to some of the prostheses his company engineers, his mind automatically goes to technology as the explanation.]
[Altius digging his own grave (having to have conversations): Who put this hole here?
Octavian neither notices nor cares, though, so it's going great. He's too enamored with his robot to pay attention to others' responses to it, unless they start trying to knock it around, or something.]
As in with a computer? No. Runework powers this project.
[And Viktor stuck a hex crystal in there, but that's not something he's going to go around advertising.]
I am unsure how a programmed construct would function here. Even a simple AI within an AI's domain seems... [he waves his hands a little,] antithetical.
[He turns a newly critical-slash-intrigued eye towards the bot, letting out a hm of something like realization. Runework... magic that works as a set of instructions. He wonders... could the magic of his world be utilized in such a sense? He's only ever given direct commands to his constructs and let them go about it, rather than establishing sets of conditions and behavior...
Now that he's actively looking, he does sense something magical within the thing. For nothing more than a toddling errand-runner it seems like a rather strong signal, so to speak, but he doesn't know what Octavian's true intent is with his creation.
Ah, well. It seems the ghost is rather proud of it, so he'd be surprised to not hear more of it later. He'll file that away in memory as something that might be of use after all...]
Do you think it can emulate biological and magical processes but not electronic? Or rather that it wouldn't?
[He shrugs lightly; he doesn't claim to know much, but since these AIs running their little world here do seem to have... emotions of a sort, it stands to reason one would want to protect its own existence from another AI and what it could do. Probably.]
The previous iteration was prone to corruption. One of us creating an intelligence capable of the same things as our AI overseer might make it nervous.
[But again, not his area of expertise.]
No doubt it would be possible. However I doubt it would be allowed to remain for very long.
[It's a neutral reply, largely, though he personally leans in the opposite direction of that opinion. How different are any of them from a truly advanced AI capable of emotion, really? Especially when he knows there's now an android among the Chosen...
Hmm. As he considers further...]
Do you think that's what's happened to the copies?
[Illicit copies of a version of this program that was prone to nearly collapsing in on itself and also never seemed to manage to actually "save" any of its prior groups of alleged criminals? Hmm.]
I have yet to hear anyone has succeeded in accessing any of said copies. So. Perhaps.
[...But he doesn't really want to get corrupted into a lizard person or whatever, so,] I have zero desire to live in that unstable world again.
[That's a stronger sentiment than most he's heard from Octavian, even worded obliquely as it is. He sits back, arms folded over his chest, and raises his eyebrows with some surprised curiosity.]
Was it that awful for you?
[Part of him wonders how that "glitching" he's heard of could even affect the ghost, given his apparent ability to become all but immune to danger. The other part recognizes that this place no doubt has its way of directly affecting anyone it's brought here, regardless of their current state—and is curious as to the particulars.]
[He immediately squashes the thoughts that arise regarding Octavian's sustainability. Still, the conversation takes something of a grim turn, as it only seems logical to him to ask:]
Do you think this place would fail to bring you back as it has for others?
[It is a constant wonder that he-- and, he supposes, Charles, for the same reason-- is here at all like this, when all the other unfortunately deceased have been restored to full life by default. He's decided not to take it personally, but in so doing has decided the simulation simply does not know what to do with a ghost, so.
Best not to risk it.]
Besides. The previous iteration consistently failed its charges. This one does not even have the boon of experience.
[Altius lets out a hum of thought, briefly. He certainly has no interest in testing the limits of revival, himself, even if it didn't come with the unpleasant sensation of dying.]
Understandable.
[He has thoughts about this separate iteration, how it might be shaped by its circumstances, their presence and knowledge, its lack of caretakers. He doesn't know that discussing them would yield anything of worth, though, so he simply says with the air of a sigh,]
I always seem to come back to even more questions I have no idea how to get the answers to.
[Like: whatever happened to that little crys he dropped into the crack in reality? Did it even make it through?]
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expiationlogs2025-02-10 12:12 pm
no subject
You're not the first person to have that impression. [ The first here, perhaps,
to be determined,but the first in the past several years, whenever he's gone out looking for dates? Absolutely not. ]I suppose you must think me too boring to be interested?
[ He doesn't sound remotely offended. ]
no subject
[Although he did bring his own food... If he'd brought an entirely fresh party setup, maybe Octavian could be convinced.]
And I do not consider you boring. For the record.
no subject
[Because yes, even with Two Whole Businesses to juggle, it's on such a smaller scale that even if the work load might be considered... difficult by anyone else, for him it's almost natural. And that's not counting his, ahem, extra-curriculars back home,
so he has? time? for something resembling relaxation.]
It's not only "riffraff" among our number, not to mention I've seen a few new faces. [But none he recognizes, which is... something he has complicated feelings about. Those feelings do not surface physically in any form or fashion.] Are you only here for the novelty?
no subject
Just in case.] If you see anyone who claims to know me: no they do not. Unless the face is the same.
[Anyway, novelty! Of course,] The novelty is always compelling. At least a little. But also...
[He looks around again, this time for Viktor, since they're trading off robot watching duty and it's Octavian's turn to muck around and collect cookies. He points when he spots him, and then points lower, to the attending robot. Look, look at him. He's so rotund.]
Field testing. For our project.
no subject
Noted.
[He doesn't end up having the chance to ask with the change in topic, and to be frank, it doesn't really matter to him. When Octavian points, his brow furrows mildly at the sight of the man with the crutch, but his attention is turned quickly enough to the miniature construct—
project, is it.
He buries the thought, raising his eyebrows at Octavian.]
You've been busy, I see. Anything in particular you're hoping to see from it?
no subject
Independent navigation while completing tasks. [A beat.] Including not falling over.
[Balance is very tricky, especially when in a much more crowded place than Octavian's workspace with its conveniently cleared floor for walking practice. The robot isn't doing much of anything right now, but watch it long enough and it will toddle off to deliver someone, well, whatever it happens to pick up. Paper heart. Cup. Cookie.
The commands are very basic for this particular field test.]
Ultimately: running some simple errands.
no subject
He wonders if this is the sort of satisfaction that drives Octavian. At the same time, he finds himself needing to put more effort than usual into pretending he's interested. Such is the choice he's made for himself, alas.]
Building a machine within a machine. [He shrugs one shoulder as he adds:] Supposedly. Are you a programmer as well?
[He's not even considering magic might be involved; given things like balance and responding to certain inputs are important to some of the prostheses his company engineers, his mind automatically goes to technology as the explanation.]
no subject
Octavian neither notices nor cares, though, so it's going great. He's too enamored with his robot to pay attention to others' responses to it, unless they start trying to knock it around, or something.]
As in with a computer? No. Runework powers this project.
[And Viktor stuck a hex crystal in there, but that's not something he's going to go around advertising.]
I am unsure how a programmed construct would function here. Even a simple AI within an AI's domain seems... [he waves his hands a little,] antithetical.
no subject
Now that he's actively looking, he does sense something magical within the thing. For nothing more than a toddling errand-runner it seems like a rather strong signal, so to speak, but he doesn't know what Octavian's true intent is with his creation.
Ah, well. It seems the ghost is rather proud of it, so he'd be surprised to not hear more of it later. He'll file that away in memory as something that might be of use after all...]
Do you think it can emulate biological and magical processes but not electronic? Or rather that it wouldn't?
[can you play doom on expiation?]
no subject
[He shrugs lightly; he doesn't claim to know much, but since these AIs running their little world here do seem to have... emotions of a sort, it stands to reason one would want to protect its own existence from another AI and what it could do. Probably.]
The previous iteration was prone to corruption. One of us creating an intelligence capable of the same things as our AI overseer might make it nervous.
[But again, not his area of expertise.]
No doubt it would be possible. However I doubt it would be allowed to remain for very long.
no subject
[It's a neutral reply, largely, though he personally leans in the opposite direction of that opinion. How different are any of them from a truly advanced AI capable of emotion, really? Especially when he knows there's now an android among the Chosen...
Hmm. As he considers further...]
Do you think that's what's happened to the copies?
no subject
[Illicit copies of a version of this program that was prone to nearly collapsing in on itself and also never seemed to manage to actually "save" any of its prior groups of alleged criminals? Hmm.]
I have yet to hear anyone has succeeded in accessing any of said copies. So. Perhaps.
[...But he doesn't really want to get corrupted into a lizard person or whatever, so,] I have zero desire to live in that unstable world again.
no subject
Was it that awful for you?
[Part of him wonders how that "glitching" he's heard of could even affect the ghost, given his apparent ability to become all but immune to danger. The other part recognizes that this place no doubt has its way of directly affecting anyone it's brought here, regardless of their current state—and is curious as to the particulars.]
no subject
[He gestures to himself; this thing, the body, but also his usual ghostly form, so,]
...sustainability. I cannot be cavalier about "changes."
no subject
[He immediately squashes the thoughts that arise regarding Octavian's sustainability. Still, the conversation takes something of a grim turn, as it only seems logical to him to ask:]
Do you think this place would fail to bring you back as it has for others?
no subject
[It is a constant wonder that he-- and, he supposes, Charles, for the same reason-- is here at all like this, when all the other unfortunately deceased have been restored to full life by default. He's decided not to take it personally, but in so doing has decided the simulation simply does not know what to do with a ghost, so.
Best not to risk it.]
Besides. The previous iteration consistently failed its charges. This one does not even have the boon of experience.
no subject
Understandable.
[He has thoughts about this separate iteration, how it might be shaped by its circumstances, their presence and knowledge, its lack of caretakers. He doesn't know that discussing them would yield anything of worth, though, so he simply says with the air of a sigh,]
I always seem to come back to even more questions I have no idea how to get the answers to.
[Like: whatever happened to that little crys he dropped into the crack in reality? Did it even make it through?]