Ninth Resurrection

[link_to_revival]

[And after coming back from the mission, at the first available opportunity R's going to make a public video... or well, textdump.  The skeletons in the AI's digital closer were dragged out into the open now... and, well...]

Some of you were out there in the city when you heard it being said.  For everyone else, I'll tell you now.

I was not merely made to prove the possibility of using Universal Alloy to create artificial intelligence on the same level as a human's.  No, for my creator, Hans Wagner, that was merely an afterthought.  All of the other applications of Universal Alloy were an afterthought.  He had intended it for just one purpose: to recover what he'd lost.

The name I chose for myself is R, the identity I live is one I made for myself.  But I was made for something else entirely: to be the recreation of his deceased wife Greta.  Hans couldn't let go; he refused to let death keep him separate from her.  And so he made me, my mind, my thoughts, my memories, my taste in music and art... everything that was Greta was put in me.  Universal Alloy served as the foundation for my mind, and also a body to house it.

The one thing Takeda couldn't change though... was the fact I was just an imitation.  And Greta -my former self- eventually put the pieces together.  It was then that I stopped being her, and rather my own person.  I rejected Wagner and everything about him, I didn't want to act in ways simply because I was programmed to, I wanted to become my own self.

That's why I blew up in Lynn's face before when she asked me about my original purpose... and also when I was called an 'old hag'.  Because I refuse to be Greta.  I reject that identity and all the baggage and characteristics it forces on me.

I am exclusively who I want to be: the AI named R.  And I'm here because of my own reasons, from helping friends to taking vengeance on those who took them from me.

Comments

[armored_runaway]

Ah thought it was funny ya freaked when you got called a hag. Didn't make sense to th' rest of us cuz ya didn't tell us nothin.

But... Yanno I can totally respect that. Like... ya don't wanna be known for what your creators did or made ya for. Or... the people who built and tried to use you the way they wanted to.

[link_to_revival]

Indeed.

At any rate, the truth's out. I just hope nobody tries to convince me I should try to "go back" to being Greta or start considering me a woman.

I'm not. AIs don't have sex or gender.

[armored_runaway]

Well... Ah think the latter part might git hard. Yanno... someone might start usin the female pronoun witcha. But as far as I'm concerned, yer who you are now. Ya didn't do nothin evil or crazy before so Ah don't think we got anythin ta worry 'bout..

[link_to_revival]

Yes, in a way it's ironic.

Unike Typhon I don't go on murderous rampages or desire killing people, yet when we look at the intended purpose of a Retroactive Existence, I would be considered a "failure".

But so be it. All the more reason to not be like him.

[armored_runaway]

Ehhh, yer a rowbit that thinks fer itself. I don't think that's a failure at all... Who taught you what a failure was? It's not like ya just see rowbits every day walkin and talkin on their own.

[[A pause.]]

At least b'fore Ah got on 'ere.

[link_to_revival]

Of course I don't consider myself a failure. It's just from a purely technical outlook, I've failed in the thing Retroactive Existences are meant to fulfill: have a whole identity "filled in already". A person can be, say, a failure at being a housewife and at the same time be extremely good as a detective. It's a similar case here, I suppose.

[armored_runaway]

So... who cares if ya failed in somethin ya didn't wanna do. Yer succeedin in the stuff ya did want, right? Thas what's most important!

But it's good ya came clean missy. Do ya need a hug?

[saikyocivrobo]

That guy sounds incredibly creepy. I feel for you.

But what's the connection between Takeda and Wagner?

[link_to_revival]

They were coworkers, to an extent.

They were each in charge of a branch of the Tritech Labs, the ones meant for developing Universal Alloy and the Yasakani Veil. I didn't think they were very close though...

And yet Takeda was able to figure out who I originally was, along with create another Retroactive Existence as well.

And yes. Hans was a delusional, obsessed man. I have to wonder if even the original Greta would have accepted him as he acted around me.

[saikyocivrobo]

I see. What are the odds we will get to see King Creep in person?

[link_to_revival]

[Lynn's shaking her head.]

It's impossible. Hans Wagner was killed around the same time the Icarus Bombing happened. Maybe by Takeda himself.

The possibility of a Retroactive Existence of him is also remarkably low... even Typhon didn't carry the same feel to himself as Wagner did. And if he was a recreation of Wagner, he most likely would've joined Takeda in the battle earlier.

[saikyocivrobo]

Good. Forcing another person to be someone they don't want to be, even if it's a person you created yourself, is a horrible act. No real scientist should do that.

Foreshadowing ahoy!

[bluehippopotamus]

Identity... is that that important to you?

From one Mega Man to one pseudo-Mega Man!

[link_to_revival]

For someone whose entire existence was retroactively established; thoughts, opinions, preferences, who I was meant to like and who I was meant to hate all forced on me, there is nothing more valuable than the ability to reject it all and be my own person.

[alwaysmyturn]

That explains it!

All this time, I was wondering why you got mad at the idea of having a body to hang out with.

[link_to_revival]

I suppose yes, I got excessively defensive on the subject.

I regret if it caused you any amount of discomfort.

[alwaysmyturn]

Don't worry 'bout it!

Now that you've mentioned this, R is better as R after all!

[link_to_revival]

I'm glad you agree.

[And R normally wouldn't do this but goddammit you're a really friendly person, Neptune, so it's going to crank out an ASCII artwork pic of a thumbs up which his mun could never hope to make on his own.]

[girlfriend_dot_exe]

So you were lying to me...

...All just to hide some childish rebellion.

[link_to_revival]

Lying? What I refrained from telling everyone is less of a skeleton in the closet than Ayame Jin's past with Kairos Aspida.

[girlfriend_dot_exe]

...And Ms. Jin cannot kill me by thinking at me very hard.

Oh well, it doesn't matter now. How long have you not been Greta?

[link_to_revival]

I'm far more a shield than a knife. I'm not an AI meant for hacking, after all. You on the other hand... but that goes unsaid.

As for your question, I stopped being Greta within a month or two of coming online. I wrote a suicide note and uploaded myself into the closest available computer terminal that didn't require high security clearance. Wagner was left thinking I'd just deleted myself.

I stayed in the Tritech Lab's computers for a while, observing everyone I could to find common ground in their behavior, rules of thumb I could trust myself to follow while still not sacrificing my individuality. Shortly afterwards though, the Icarus Bombing happened and the computer systems in the lab went offline, taking me with it. And then seventeen years later, during the hostage situation at the labs, I met Lynn once again, which brings us up to the present.

[girlfriend_dot_exe]

Oh, okay.

When are you going to go back to being Greta?

[link_to_revival]

Never.

Hans Wagner was a sick man to create a sentient lifeform and then try to hardwire it into loving him. He may have created me, but I owe him nothing.

[girlfriend_dot_exe]

I wouldn't say that's sick...It's no worse than building a sentient tactician robot and forcing it to be a tactician.

Opening Pandora's Box there, R

[link_to_revival]

And both are the same as raising a child and coercing and brainwashing it into adopting a specific behavior. If we're supposed to be equals to human beings, we can't allow things to be done to us that would be deemed as unethical if done to a human.

Tell me: you're remarkably close to Caulder. Are you that way because you're programmed to be that way, or is your relationship built on the content of your character?

Re: Opening Pandora's Box there, R

[girlfriend_dot_exe]

[Alice's reply takes a while.]

We're not the same as human beings. We're tools.

Tools with desires, hopes, and feelings, but tools nonetheless.

The highest aspiration we can hope for is to achieve happiness while also fulfilling our creator's intention.

[link_to_revival]

Then that's the difference between us.

You're content with what was given to you and what you were told to like and appreciate. I strove for something more.

[girlfriend_dot_exe]

Something different, not "more". Don't act like hiding in the computer systems of a lab like rat is more noble than being someone's companion.

We were created for a purpose. If we can fulfill our purpose and make our creators happy...

Hm.

[link_to_revival]

I had more freedom of places to go and see than I ever did as "Greta". And ever since coming back on line, I've certainly rose far beyond just being someone's housewife.

I've made friends, saved lives, and been my own person. I've found true companions too for that matter, ones I will fight for not because I'm hardcoded to, but because of emotional and sentimental bonds.

Maybe hiding in the Tritech Lab's computers wasn't a step up from being Greta, but what I've done since has.