diatuooc | Test Drive #4

Test Drive #4

The Scary Door

The classroom door looks different today, bearing a few small but noticeable scratches on its upper corner -- and also it happens to tremble, as if with excitement, the moment anyone reaches for the knob. That gives it away. This isn't the classroom door at all!

And it isn't the bathroom door. And it isn't the door to the staircase. And it isn't the door to the hallway. But wherever you go, there's this door that really, really, really wants you to open it, and it doesn't seem to take 'no' for an answer...

Acting in Concert

One thing anyone sharing a campus with Valhudor students must accept is that every once in a while a performance just appears out of nowhere, much in the way of a tornado and with the same ability to suck in anything nearby as collateral damage. Today what looked to be an innocuous group of musicians heading back from class turned into a flash concert without warning. Not a bad thing for a music-lover, actually, and listening to their pleasant tunes only got better as more students saw the opportunity and joined in.

Right up until the drama students showed up and promptly hijacked everyone nearby into a play.

So here you are, in Fantasticked finery, trapped in a bit part in front of a growing crowd. The two ringleaders of this disaster appear to be putting on an entirely improvised performance about two warring houses, because apparently they love stage-dueling (and have had three different scenes of it so far, each of them so sexually charged the allegory is barely allegorical), while the orchestra merrily matches music to action. As for your role? 'Improvise!' they said brightly.

And like that you're up, across from a partner who clearly did not enter this voluntarily either. Better think fast... the one thing uglier than a crowd who have a performance ruined is Valhudor students who have had their mating-dance-slash-play ruined.

Definitely Not Worrying

The spring day is perfect. Bright blue sky without a cloud in sight, sunlight that pushes the perfect temperature just onto the side of 'pleasantly warm', a gentle breeze that drifts over the grass and cools what the sun warms... it's bliss, if not outright soporific, and almost everybody is outside lounging in the grass and enjoying just how wonderful it is.

Then Headmaster Birony comes tearing around the corner of a building like the hounds of hells are at her heels. "Hello, students!" Despite her bright smile, she doesn't break her stride for a second as she zooms past. "Run like hell! Chaos bees!"

And that's when the swarm of chaos bees races around the corner after her, wings filling the air with a deafening buzz.

Now the thing about chaos bees is that they resist magic of all forms, and they have their own particular magic that makes the results of their stings... highly unpredictable at best. You might have your hair turn white, or your skin turn blue. You might blow up like a gum-chewing girl in need of juicing, or feel the uncontrollable urge to form a gang, snap your fingers, and have a dance-fight to drive the Jets out of town. Whatever happens, the effect is never permanent, but maybe Headmaster Birony has the right idea.

Late Night Party

Without a curfew (and with good sound-protection spells on the Towers), students don't always go to bed like responsible adults. This party is still going strong at 3 in the morning, lit by balls of color that float in the air and full of music and dancing and just-for-fun mage dueling that is just a little more dangerous than it should be thanks to it being far easier to talk someone into a late-night mage duel when they're tipsy. As spells crack against each other and feet slide over the grass in time with the beat, everyone's having fun! Even party-poopers can find another wallflower to talk classwork with while enjoying the snacks and the drinks. What a great place to meet fellow students and socialize!

((alternate post image))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[It's... impressive, watching her move. Jude has no trouble imagining her as a powerful foe just based on her size alone.

Although Orisa's particular approach to conflict ideology is strange to her. She raises her eyebrows.]

Your duty is to protect someone?

[Someone specific, she assumes.]

Edited 2019-04-19 18:12 (UTC)

I am supposed to be the protector of the city of Numbani. [Orisa turns her hand palm up, a shrug as she reckons these things.] But lacking that option, I believe my protection should be extended to all those in need.

[So like... a police officer.

Or a knight.]

How do you decide who's worth protecting?

Indicating a single set of criteria is impossible. Although I have been programmed, I possess a complex AI and thus use heuristics, fuzzy logic -- all decisionmaking criteria that humans may use. But innocence, strength, and the nature of the threat are all factors. I would protect a little old lady against a robber, but I would protect both of them from Doomfist.

[It is difficult, exceeding her programming this way. Making determinations she is not certain Efi would want her to make. But she must, because to act otherwise is to shirk her duty.]

[She understood maybe half of that, but...]

That sounds just to me.

"AI" is... [It takes her a moment of mental grasping to find the term.] Artificial intelligence? Like a program?

[Duh, Jude, she's just said that.

Unfortunately computers just aren't within Jude's realm of expertise even a little bit.]

That is correct! Mine is designed to be equal to a human. I have self-determination and free will, though I am guided by my programming.

[Orisa knows many people here do not understand the concept of omnics or AI, so she has no problem explaining. Much of what other people know is strange to her as well!]

[A computer with free will? Even she knows that's fantastical. The thought that this is some sort of elaborate prank crosses her mind.

...but even if it is, so what? There's little to gain here.

And they are in a different universe, at some sort of magic school. So there's that for fantastical.

She eyes Orisa, quizzical.] Then... do you feel things?

[A half-breath after the words leave her mouth, she realizes how rude she's being. She feels her face flush, but...

But she's asked already, and she really does want to know.]

I have an intact sensor suite consisting of inputs paralleling human ones! Touch, temperature, sight and hearing of course... Although if you meant emotionally, I have those as well! [Cheerfulness is clearly one of them, to judge by her irrepressible good humor. But Orisa is generally pretty cheerful.] I am not certain it is possible to be intelligent without them.

You don't think so?

[This conversation just keeps getting more astounding by the minute.]

Most-- some people would say emotions make us stupid.

I disagree. Emotions are required to provide weight to decisions made under a logical framework! 'Stupidity' in this case is simply others failing to understand the logical weights involved. For example, objectively most people would consider me 'stupid' for exposing myself to danger. However, I feel it is important to help and protect others, so it is not stupid for me to act in accordance with those principles.

[While Orisa doesn't understand programming to the degree her creator does, she certainly has grasp enough of her own underlying architecture to understand this.]

[That's-- a lot to process, especially with her thoughts as fuzzy as they are.

She should not have had that second gummy bear.

Still, after a moment of what looks like concentrated thought, she forges on:] But what if-- what if the emotional choice is rash? What if you end up doing something you regret? Something that... hurts more people than it saves?

[This one is especially easy, considering how much she knows she still must learn to be truly effective at her tasks.]

That comes from insufficient information or insufficient analysis. I might regret stepping into the line of fire of a sniper, but if I did not know the sniper was there, how could I have chosen differently?

That's... not what I mean.

[And what does she mean? It's frustrating, trying to hone in on the exact idea. She points at the party hats on the small table.]

Like-- like this. It's a confidence trick. You can't win it-- [well, okay, correction] --a regular person can't win it. People watch others lose over and over, but they still step up to try, and why?

Because they want to think they're special. Even though they've no reason to believe so.

Insufficient analysis! They do not recognize the pattern or have concluded that the failure of others is due to their own flaws rather than the game's. If they considered it more extensively, they would recognize the problem in their thinking.

[That's what Orisa believes, in any case.]

[She exhales, rolls her shoulders, and then seems to make a very conscious effort to relax her posture. Effectively, this means she's slumping in her chair.]

I guess you're right.

[She's not convinced, but there's no use arguing, and in fact she feels kind of silly, getting as heated as she did.

She reaches out and flicks the hats off balance one by one, as if toppling kings on a chess board.]

Test Drive #4

thank you! :>

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