trans_9 | Out For a Ride [open]

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Out For a Ride [open]

On his last visit, Zouichi had visited the remains of one of the locked-down cities he'd passed through in the course of carrying out his missions. This time he wasn't particularly in the mood for a fight... but maybe he was in the mood for a ride.

The environment had taken on the form of the structure he sometimes saw in his dreams, an interminably long organic expanse. Sometimes the landscape grew upwards, into a mass of domed, seemingly alive city buildings. Sometimes there were portals underground, passages that delved deep into its core, whose walls were lined with the unidentifiable biomechanical innards that pulsed with the alien life of this place.

Actually, come to think of it, it reminded him a little of Stacy.

The area he was on now was a vast expanse of some unrecognizable material... but it was flat and solid, and therefore perfectly fine terrain for the XLA. Around it was not a sky, but the emptiness of open space. Whatever strange atmosphere surrounded this place was completely transparent, allowing anyone present to simply stare out at the stars.

He eased the motorcycle forward, with Fuyu hovering over his shoulder like a pale ghost.

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Alex had always been surprisingly open about a lot of things. The things he didn't like to talk about, he would do whatever he could to dance around, though.

"S-she is! And o-of course. I-I mean... I'm s-scared. S-scared of doing s-something s-stupid, or sh-she won't l-like me when sh-she learns everything about m-me, but I'm d-doing my best ta b-be as open ta her as I c-can. M-more than I am t-to anyone else."

Fuyu hid a smile behind her hand. Teen angst! "Well, that's a very mature way of looking at things."

Zouichi looked vaguely surprised. Won't like you? What secrets could you possibly be keeping that would make her dislike you? Unless, of course, you're an ax murderer in your free time.

Alex clammed up a great deal more when that subject came up. His discomfort was obvious as he actually drew away from Zouichi and Fuyu, looking off to the side. "W-well, n-no, n-nothing r-really like that. S-still..."

He let the sentence hang for a moment before trying to perk back up with much false excitement. "Fuyu, w-would it b-be rude of m-me to a-ask about your p-programming?"

Well, obvious discomfort was obvious.

"Certainly. I will answer whatever I am able."

He seemed relieved to have the topic dropped. This was clearly something he would rather talk about. "What is your b-base d-digital representation in? Binary? Is there a s-specific programming language for humans to r-read your c-coding, or was it all d-developed in the base c-code? I've always thought that r-requiring an AI to c-continue to p-parse a programming language s-seemed s-silly, if you were just gonna to let them c-continue learning without the intention of examining an' editing the c-code at a later date. Of c-course, if there's a system error, it w-would be a simple matter to re-translate th-things back into a c-code more accessible t-ta most humans, but I never s-saw a need to translate it b-back, unless I needed to d-do extensive repairs.

"Do you ever need any maintenance ch-checks? C-can you repair your own c-code? C-can you access your own c-code?"

Really, he seems like he could probably go on for hours here.

Edited 2011-03-06 03:58 (UTC)

She laughed. "We're not an alien civilization, you know. Of course I'm binary. And no, I'm not coded in machine language; that would be masochistic on the part of the engineers who maintained me during my infancy. Most of my code is written using a proprietary language created by Toha strictly for their AIs. And honestly, the requirements for compiling my code really aren't that stringent, so it was an easy decision.

I can access and repair my own code, yes, and I perform diagnostic checks on myself regularly. In most situations, I require no outside intervention to repair myself."

He laughed a bit, scratching the back of his head, "W-well, there's talk of moving p-past binary systems with the use of non-silicone devices, so I figured there was a possibility there. I've a-always found that the o-only trouble with machine language is the time it takes to t-type out the code, though I s-suppose that it is also read slower, if only because there is longer strings.

"A language specifically c-created for the development of AIs does sound like the most efficient method, since you c-can make sure it is the lightest c-code to c-compile, while still making it e-easily u-understandable. I work with security system AIs a lot though, so when trying ta k-keep a hacker out, every nano-second c-counts. I r-realized this while testing my systems, sometimes I was just able to outmanuver the AI because the process took just a moment too long to go through, so I dropped the language use in an effort to reduce processing time. By removing it entirely, while making it harder to work with, it also made it harder to get around if somehow someone gained access to the system."

"I don't think we have many coders like you around, Alex; I believe for most people, coding in machine language is a tedious and backbreaking task, rather than speaking in a second language.

...you can code in machine language faster than an AI can execute commands? That is... quite impressive."

[whaaaaat? Did I read that right?]

Alex went a bit red at his poor use of language and laughed, "Me? N-no, b-but I c-can make smaller programs to attack the security system f-faster than it c-can make it's c-counter to the last attack. It's n-not easy, and it c-could be because I know the s-system so well, but I'm not happy until I c-can't hack my own security system.

"I w-wish I c-could. That'd b-be like some awesome sci-fi though. I'd say it c-couldn't happen in real life, b-but, well, look at where we are. I'm s-starting ta think anything's possible."

((OOC: No, I wasn't clear. I was thinking of clarifying, but then I realized that he wouldn't think to clarify on something like that anyway, so I left it. XD))

"Perhaps if you were an AI yourself, it would indeed be possible." Or found some way to download himself into a computer system. That'd be interesting to watch.

Speaking of sci-fi, said Zouichi, There is quite a collection of media in the library, but they all appear to be older titles. I did attempt to search for a title in which I was a 'character', but as you said, I couldn't find anything. I suppose it must have been removed.

[Hahaha, Alex should watch Dennou Coil]

Alex smiled, "Maybe!" While he liked the idea, he also very much liked being human. It was still a strange idea to him for AIs to have emotions. Downloading himself into a computer system seemed like a better idea somehow, even if it was really just a semantic issue.

"P-probably. It s-seems like only occasionally Stacy misses things." He didn't even know if he was a character somewhere. It was apparently not somewhere where many people knew of his story.

Unfortunate. I was also hoping to glean some more information on human interaction from them, but it seems that fictional film is not a strong indicator of how most people act.

It seems that the same holds true for novels. I picked one up to try and understand the criminal element, but it was... terrible.

Alex laughed a bit, "D-don't even bother t-touching video games f-for that purpose. The designers a-are usually n-not much better with social situations than me."

Zouichi looked at him.

Are you saying I can't resolve interpersonal disputes by hurling barrels at my adversaries?

Yeah, that was totally deadpan.

Alex blinked.

Even he knew that.

"No."

Have an awkward silence.

It was a joke, said Zouichi.

Maybe he needed to work on his humor. Howard was the only one who seemed to pick up on it.

Alex laughed, relieved. "I w-was a bit w-worried. I've n-never been g-good catching sarcasm."

Zouichi tried his best to look wounded. I hope you don't consider me that lacking in tact.

Alex was totally taken by that too, and he began waving his hands to indicate that it wasn't true. "N-no, I th-thought that it was odd!"

Alex... wasn't kidding about not catching things in conversation.

Zouichi smiled reassuringly. It's all right. I wouldn't be surprised if you took me literally, anyway; many people on the ship seem to.

In fact, a lot of people seemed to be under the impression that he was some sort of robot or clone soldier or something.

"Really...? Usually I'm s-sorta alone on that... I've gotten b-better over the years, b-but... Y-yeah." He rubbed at the back of his neck nervously. At least he didn't think that Zouichi was a clone soldier or robot.

Yes. I suppose I strike people as the serious sort. So you're in good company. Heck, Anwei almost never picked up on his humor.

Have you been here for years, then?

He thought for a moment. There was no way it had been years, but it had been a long time. "N-not quite a year n-now... B-back home there's a g-girl, Amanda. I h-had ta work hard t-ta get used to her h-humor. I'd m-much rather y-yours though." He didn't seem too happy talking about Amanda, but he didn't seem to have any hatred towards her either. He smiled again, mentioning Zouichi's humor.

You've been here for almost a year? Alex must be sturdier than he looked, to have made it here for that long.

Ah, at last some appreciation. Did she have to explain her jokes often?

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Out For a Ride [open]

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derp. Was playing a character with very proper English most of the weekend XD

Re: derp. Was playing a character with very proper English most of the weekend XD

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