All work and no play...

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

There is an AI on the ship that goes by the name Bender Stack. It only pops up now and again, and now its function may finally be somewhat clear.

"Hey. Hey meatbag!" says a grating voice.

Bender Stack chases people away from work when they've been doing too much of it.

This is why Brainiac 5 leaves the Special Weapons Division and by the time he gets up to the Living Area (having decided to eat anyway if the irritating AI is going to heckle him out of work) he's about at his wit's end.

"--For the last time, I am not going to build you a robot prostitute! You're an AI, not a mechanoid, you couldn't interface with it anyway."

Comments

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

Her display doesn't impress him. There isn't even a twitch of emotional reaction, but this is not for its lack of impressive-ness--this is because he is ultimately a young man whose character is founded in logic and reason, to the point of extremes. On the one hand, this leaves him deeply flawed, this lack of contact with emotion--on the other, on occasion, it leaves him utterly fearless.

He's faced Darkseid. Glowy eyes and resounding words do not scare him.

"You are certainly right about wisdom and temperance--but you have misjudged us, and if you believe my 'restraint' separates me from the others, you are mistaken--not because I have none, but because this is them demonstrating the same restraint I've shown."

His head tilts just slightly, almost a twitch.

"Wisdom and temperance--and compassion--are the reasons I'm not currently in control of this ship and performing mass experiments on the millions of potential subjects within. They are the reasons I am not a villain. They are the reasons the heroes from my world are not depraved beings of pointless violence that engage in control and subjugation through force or the intimidation you're attempting to use right now."

"You can choose to see us as potential dangers, as monsters waiting to be unleashed on the innocent, beings of destruction inches away from making a mistake that could cost lives, or you can see us as sentient beings that lack perfection, as all sentient beings do, but who struggle daily with restraint--and win--who use their abilities for good and dance eternally on that narrow line between heroism and casual cruelty--always pushing ourselves to fall to the right side. I have seen enough of the heroes of my world, past and present, to know that we're the latter, not the former."

"As it stands, Superman's actions did not cause permanent harm, as was his intention not to, and were vindicated by the acts of a madman whose legacy of evil is so great that my inability to escape it is sadly justified."

Brainiac 5 starts to float off.

"While I may not be able to change your mind, I will not allow you to use what happened between myself and Superman to support whatever cause it is you've formed in your fevered imaginings of our supposed egregious metahuman recklessness, Ms. Alexander. Make note of this fact."

[lytaalex.livejournal.com]

"You want us to believe that you are not reckless, that you are not a danger to us? Then prove it. Take responsibility. Ever since that incident, all I've heard are apologies coupled with attempts to excuse and justify it," Lyta replied.

"If you don't have the maturity to admit he screwed up without trying to deflect blame or to rationalize it, how are we to trust that you have the maturity not to use your powers recklessly or to make decisions that could cost us our lives in the future?"

She pauses.

"And you were right. I could be deemed 'dangerous' by my nature. But it's not our powers that makes us 'dangerous,' it's how we use them. I have exercised restraint where Superman, your friends, and even you have not. I could have been scanning every member of this crew who was not resistant to telepathy for weeks. I could know every one of their deep, dark secrets. Things they don't want to share, I could read like a book. But I don't. I respect their privacy. I respect their lives. And the fact that I didn't know about the Yeerks until the last minute proves that. Can you say the same?"

She stares at him with a pointed look on her face.

"I said you have shown more restraint than your friends, but that doesn't mean you have been completely restrained. The medical data you collected from the crew without their knowledge or their permission proves that. The ends never justify the means, Brainy. And the lack of death never vindicates putting lives at risk.

"If you believe otherwise, then perhaps your compassion is not all you seem to think it is."

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

He stops, now, turning in mid-air...seething.

"My actions saved a man's life and prevented him from being left a drooling vegetable. It's not a matter of the ends justifying the means--it's a matter of not caring if you're cast into the role of the villain if your efforts preserve life."

He relents, "Even then, do not let my own actions paint your perceptions of the others. Despite our rough start, Superman is by far a better man than I. Many of the others are. They are not...pleased with me, for what I'm responsible for, despite what it did for Sam."

He goes on, "Which is precisely my point. Superman didn't trust me initially. If my actions were so reprehensible, perhaps he had a right not to."

Brainy admits, "The problem here is that the fundamental question at the root of all this is not whether or not Superman and the others are responsible or justified or trustworthy, it's not their nature that's open to ambiguous interpretation."

He goes on, "The problem is that out of the confines of my natural setting, my own nature apparently is--even to them. If you're looking for someone to blame, blame myself, for my words and actions reinforcing a deadly stereotype, from start to finish. If I didn't want to be treated as a Brainiac, I shouldn't have acted like one. That is taking responsibility, Ms. Alexander."

[lytaalex.livejournal.com]

Lyta, finally, nodded. The white glow of her eyes dissipated.

"There may just be hope for you, yet," she said. She then turned and headed down the hallway in the opposite direction. But before she was out of earshot, she added:

"As far as Superman and others are concerned...time will tell."