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Entry tags:
- !plot: mission 02 - holiday plot,
- !status: open,
- aeris gainsborough,
- billy cranston,
- brainiac 5,
- brenda,
- cameron mitchell,
- chopper,
- claire redfield,
- hellion,
- jamie hemeros,
- jamie mccrimmon,
- jono starsmore,
- katara,
- kelly-087,
- kon-el,
- leela bricker,
- loren,
- marco,
- meluly,
- nightwing,
- robin,
- ronon dex,
- samus aran,
- sheeana,
- son of satan,
- static,
- wyn callahan,
- zelda and sheik
Good-will Toward Men
There is a whole world out there to spread holiday joy to. A world of flying cars, and massive towering skyscrapers, of quiet, cold deserts, of snow-covered cities. Everyone in it is either holed up in their homes, hooked into the Links, the network run by Macrohard, abstaining from human contact, or they're poor and destitute, in the streets, and in parts of the world that are ailing right now.
Some of them are due to stop in on specific parts of the world during their journeys. Others are just going to be show generosity to anyone they meet. Every angle has to be covered, every holiday that celebrates generosity and unity, to help stoke the fires and revive the Holiday Spirit.
Pick a place, Meatcrew. Grab some crewmates to help. Make some noise and entice people to leave their VR sets and come outside with their fellow man.
With the magical sacks, containing last of the Spirit's power, they can give anything that's wanted OR needed to the people of this world, and with the enchanted flying cars, they can get anywhere in the world to do it, in no time.
[ooc: Special holiday groups, tag your assigned subthreads (and keeping them in one thread would likely be best, since those groups are small). Whoever feels creative can pick an exact location and set up details--we wanted to give you some freedom to have your characters find where to go. Anyone else, doing Christmas or general gift-giving, tag and make new subthreads for each situation of gift-giving. These can stand alone as vignettes, but we encourage everyone to thread-hop and tag in to random threads. Don't worry about the organization of groups, they'll probably be switching groups all over the place throughout the night.]
Some of them are due to stop in on specific parts of the world during their journeys. Others are just going to be show generosity to anyone they meet. Every angle has to be covered, every holiday that celebrates generosity and unity, to help stoke the fires and revive the Holiday Spirit.
Pick a place, Meatcrew. Grab some crewmates to help. Make some noise and entice people to leave their VR sets and come outside with their fellow man.
With the magical sacks, containing last of the Spirit's power, they can give anything that's wanted OR needed to the people of this world, and with the enchanted flying cars, they can get anywhere in the world to do it, in no time.
[ooc: Special holiday groups, tag your assigned subthreads (and keeping them in one thread would likely be best, since those groups are small). Whoever feels creative can pick an exact location and set up details--we wanted to give you some freedom to have your characters find where to go. Anyone else, doing Christmas or general gift-giving, tag and make new subthreads for each situation of gift-giving. These can stand alone as vignettes, but we encourage everyone to thread-hop and tag in to random threads. Don't worry about the organization of groups, they'll probably be switching groups all over the place throughout the night.]
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"...being a father? You have kids?"
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How to explain it all?
"In a sense."
It had been his greatest mistake, and at the same time the most beautiful thing he had ever created.
"When the Legion was trapped in your era, I constructed a computer capable of opening a portal to the future and bringing us home. It was, however, sentient, even if I did not recognize its status as such at the time. When it discovered I intended to deconstruct it when its task was completed, it possessed Triad, eventually Cosmic Boy, and mounted a major attack on your planet. You may even remember it--telecommunications went down, viruses ran rampant through the world's computer systems... C.O.M.P.U.T.O was responsible for that--and I was responsible for C.O.M.P.U.T.O."
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Finally she sits beside him, craddling the now comfortably cuddly baby across her lap. She lets the little girl suck on her fingers.
"That must have been hard, going up against something you made to try to stop it."
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He shakes his head at his own folly.
"That," he says, drawing up another syringe of vaccine, "was my mistake. In your future, but five hundred years before my own time, machine-kind evolved. The machines demanded to be acknowledged as sentient beings with rights."
He looks over at Brenda.
"C.O.M.P.U.T.O. was the one that led the movement, though this historical fact was unknown until I discovered it later."
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"Or do you really wish you could have done things differently?"
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He goes on, "But as you've just stated, my actions and Computo's affected the course of history and the final outcome...cost the universe a great price and yet may have prevented more violence in the long term. I suppose I'll never know."
He briefly raises his eyebrows. "When the machines rose up and demanded citizenship, five hundred years before my own time, a horrible computer virus swept through the population, infecting many machines and causing them to attack organics. Those that were uninfected or who hadn't exhibited aberrant behavior yet after infection volunteered to be shut down for the safety of their fellow sentients. They were promised that a cure would be found--that they would be reactivated." Taking in a deep breath, he says "Nearly every single mechanoid being was either permanently shut down, deconstructed, or left in storage until it was obsolete. The promise of the organics was never fulfilled. It was called 'The Great Shutdown,' and it was tantamount to genocide. Millions of sentients went from the brink of being recognized as such, to destruction or an endless sleep that may as well have been the same."
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Brenda frowns, rocking the baby a little as she starts to fuss.
"I have the BEST knack for bringing up depressing conversation topics with you don't I?"
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Where was he? Oh yes.
"C.O.M.P.U.T.O. was the driving intelligence behind the machines, and years later, he was behind it again. He rebuilt his forces, and created a world called Robotica that was able to travel through space. The Roboticans attacked several UP planets, one of which was Xanthu, the homeworld of a considerable number of my team-mates. All of this happened while part of the Legion was lost in the Second Galaxy--I was one of those Lost Legionnaires."
There is a pause, while he rummages through his medkit. "Between being trapped in the past, that, and Stacy, it seems I have something of a knack for being in the wrong time and/or dimension. But I digress."
He's used to it now. Somewhat.
"At that time, Ra's Al Ghul had killed the UP president and was masquerading as him in a holographic disguise, something the Lost Legionnaires discovered after he attempted to have us all killed. His right hand man, Venge, was always there at his side. Ra's Al Ghul created a form of energy that was causing evolutionary changes in humanity, but it would have killed most of the population in the progress. We foiled his plan and he was captured, but we were unable to stop the hypertaxis process. Eventually the Roboticans took over Earth and started converting the technology producing it for their own use. It was then that I was captured, and Venge revealed his true face to me--it was C.O.M.P.U.T.O., in disguise. He held...some hostilities towards his creator."
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Brenda shifts on the table a little, moving the baby up to lay on her shoulder again. Her little face turns immediately toward Brainy as she lays in Brenda's arms, wide curious eyes following his movements.
"What happened? Did you have to hurt him?"
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"C.O.M.P.U.T.O. claimed he wanted to evolve to help all of machinekind evolve with him, to obtain true sentience and free will, to achieve a higher state of being. I knew he was lying--he wanted that power for himself, to finally be able to destroy all organic life."
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"He wanted my help evolving to this state, where he could destroy all organic sentience. He demanded I recognize him as my son, so I--"
His eyebrows briefly raise as he looks at her. "I helped him evolve, as I'd promised."
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He had waved it off later, pretending that it wasn't the way it was, but in his heart of hearts, he knew, and as usual, he can say whatever he really thinks to Brenda. For some reason, he's comfortable enough to.
"A parent helps their child grow." He adds, "Also, he was indeed just a child. A homicidal, angry, patricidal child, but still a child nevertheless. He couldn't deal with his emulated feelings, his initial rejection by me, his impulses. Imagine giving immeasurable power and intelligence to something that is emotionally hardly more than an infant."
He looks amused.
"As I told Kid Quantum, you have to let a difficult child think they're getting their own way. I knew that evolving with the hypertaxis energy would finally allow him to grow into a whole, well-balanced sentient being. And he did indeed evolve. He grew socially, intellectually, morally, he spread this sentience to the other mechanoids, and disbanded the Robotican forces. They ceased their attacks on organic life, restored Earth, and absorbed the remains of Warworld. Their planetoid settled into an orbit around Pluto, and they made a bid to join the United Planets and were accepted. While there was great protest, calls for my head on a pike for Computo's creation--" Here he looks rueful "--and great loss of life... mechanoids were recognized as sentients and organics and inorganics finally could live in peace, after more than five hundred years of hostilities and broken promises. We even had a mechanoid recruit before the Legion was lost in the Bleed: Babbage. He was a combat mechanoid from Robotica and was, quite frankly, rather embarrassing to have in my presence. To the Roboticans, Computo is their messiah, their liberator: the Great Intelligence. His flaws are noted and he's something of a polarizing figure among them--the Roboticans have offered to make compensations for the damage they've caused, to aid in the rebuilding of Xanthu for instance (although the Xanthans will have none of it). But where Computo is their messiah, I--"
This is embarrassing.
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He doesn't lie much - not by elaboration or by ommission. He doesn't see the point of it she supposes. But that simple fact makes everything he tells her all the more amazing.
"Faith in potential and a touch of reverse psychology. How very parental." Brenda smiles a bit, grinning when the baby makes a little 'mah!' noise and reaches a little hand out for Querl as if agreeing.
"I imagine that IS pretty awkward for you though, being looked at by a whole 'race' as their God."
If he wasn't going to say it she would.
no subject
Extremely embarrassing.
"They call me 'The Great Creator,' and the 'Father of Machinekind,' and are embarrassingly reverent towards me. I created Computo, Computo spurred their sentience and started them on the path of free will. I helped him evolve, which led to their own evolution..."
He fiddles with the medical equipment he's working with, not looking at her and the baby, and changes the subject, but oddly, it's changed to a more personal aspect of this little story.
"Even with my extensive vocabulary, I can't describe his state of being after his evolution. Such light--he existed as pure information, pure will, pure radiant energy. Pettiness, hatred, greed, spite, all of our lesser emotions as sentient beings were eradicated, and all that remained was understanding, acceptance, idealism, gratitude, forgiveness, joy...and love."
What he says next sounds all the world like a father talking about the birth of their child and holding them in their arms for the very first time.
He comes over to briefly take a scan of the baby, to check her progress. He'll be doing that every few minutes, like clockwork.
"There are many beings that produce offspring and look on what life they bring into the universe and see them as being what the sun rises and sets on," a tiny hand wraps around a green finger, "but I understand that sentiment now. You would have had to see him to understand. We create each new generation as an extension of ourselves, we send them out into the universe in the hopes that all we've taught them will allow them to make themselves into better beings than we were, and to make the universe itself better around them. What I created...what I had so foolishly treated as a mistake meant to be discarded, was the next step in the evolution of sentient life--a being that decided for itself to retain all that was good about sentient life and discard all that was bad. Computo chose to become a more moral, gentle being, to bring about peace in the universe."
And though he had played it off, pretended that he wasn't his son after after admitting it to Computo himself, he couldn't have been more proud.
"I regret, to this day, my part in his downward spiral, the callousness that set him on such a path of destruction. I rejected my creation and he lashed out at his fa--his creator and the rest of the universe. I failed him and my fellow sentients. But after finally understanding his true nature, I've never regretted for a moment that I created him."
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"You do what you can to make your child know what's right and wrong, you give them what they need to grow, and you trust that your children will find a way to be something good, something better than you were. My mom always mad that mother bird analogy - that it was so hard to throw your little ones out of the nest, to take the risk of their failure, but you never a prouder moment than when you see them fly."
She smiles, sheepish, trying to wipe an eye without him really noticing. The parallel hit home, hard. All examples of loving parents sort of do - there were times she had visited Jaime's house after her mother was gone, then come home and sobbed for what he had and she didn't - but hearing Brainy talk about his son (definetely his son) in that way twists the knife a little more.
She's not sure if she's happy or sad or both all at once.
"I'm sure looking back he doesn't regret having you for a father either."
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He's still looking at the baby, his expression soft.
"I wish I'd had the opportunity to ask him."
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"Perhaps. A Coluan assassin had been sent to ensure that Coluan intellectual supremacy still reigned supreme. She would have interfered with Computo's evolution if my team-mated Invisible Kid hadn't stopped her. As it was, even with Computo evolving, Sharn Nux managed to disembowel me, and Computo absorbed her and they disappeared without a trace."
Even his vast intellect hadn't let him find him.
"I never found out what happened to him, and now, if our universes are indeed destroyed, I do occasionally find myself idly wondering if he's among the saved..."
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She says it unhesitatingly, with total honesty.
"It would be nice to meet him, so maybe I can understand, like you said."
no subject
"Yes. Well. Perhaps you will. In the meantime, we need to aid these people. They need to be vaccinated against a variety of easily-cured communicable diseases."
no subject
"Anything I can do to help?"
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"Scan every three minutes. Any life signs out of range will show up as alerts on the screen."
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"You got it."