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Post by Kris on Feb 25, 2009 15:04:49 GMT -5
Kris wiped her hands on a towel, glancing about the room. No player characters; it was probably safe. She'd know if someone came in.
"Sure," she said. "Whenever you like; this lot will keep." Truth be told, Teja was far more important, and any brusqueness on her part--any Kris noticed, anyway, and she was sometimes rather oblivious--was put down to her quite natural nerves at suddenly finding herself here.
Kris would want some explanations herself.
She put the towel down and, smiling, moved out from behind the counter and over to the other girl, though she kept a polite distance, not knowing how touchy-feely she might be. "There's a quiet parlor over there," she indicated the door. "That okay?"
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Post by Teja on Feb 25, 2009 17:05:09 GMT -5
If it had been a stranger - at least, a perfect stranger - Teja would probably have not gotten any less anxious about this, particularly with the smile Kris wore. However, knowing Kris at least somewhat, she felt more capable of heading after her into a strange place, like a parlor, without intense discomfort.
"That sounds fine," she said, nodding, forgetting to put down her orange juice as she stood, not wanting to head even in the pointed direction until after Kris had gone. When walking, she preferred to follow people, not liking to present her back, or at the very least walk side by side.
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Post by Kris on Feb 25, 2009 17:13:46 GMT -5
Kris sensed something of this, even if she had intended the smile to be reassuring. She truly did not think of herself as a threatening presence, considering her size, so anything she read off Teja was, to her, a reaction to newness. Not her, personally.
But she moved to the door, the customers miraculously making no fuss at all, seeming perfectly content with what they had. Kris opened the door onto a comfortable little room, a sofa and a few armchairs scattered about and a fire in the grate, with bookshelves lining the walls that were by no means period-appropriate.
She left the door open, thinking Teja might be more comfortable that way and assuming she could close it, or ask Kris to, if she liked.
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Post by Teja on Feb 25, 2009 17:17:32 GMT -5
In familiar circumstances, Teja would have preferred the door closed, to the point of obsessiveness over it, in fact. But these very much were not, and the sound of the rest of the world, although a kind of faint lack-of-bustle despite how much was going on out there, was somewhat comforting. She didn't ask that the door be shut and sat down instead, at the edge of a chair, orange juice glass now more for comfort than thirst.
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Post by Kris on Feb 25, 2009 18:11:20 GMT -5
Kris curled up in the other chair, drawing her legs underneath her in her habitual position. She glanced curiously, though not very intensely, at Teja.
"It is nice to meet you," she repeated, now they were alone. "Sorry if I come off a little... intense. I get excited."
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Post by Teja on Mar 5, 2009 15:41:10 GMT -5
Teja seemed surprised, and shrugged. She had often been told she was intense - and that she didn't smile and was opinionated and things like that that generally turned other people off her company. She'd not noticed anything like that in Kris. And, besides, she thought meeting Kris was very awesome. She had always thought it would be fun to hang out with Kris in person - the woman was in a band and was generally good in conversation and seemed as though she could talk about anything. And she probably had an awesome movie collection, too.
"No, it's okay," she said after a short pause, looking moderately confused. "It's nice to meet you too. It's just under kind of... weird circumstances. You know."
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Post by Kris on Mar 9, 2009 11:47:54 GMT -5
Kris nodded.
"Oh, I know. It's a little disorienting." She frowned slightly. "Especially if... if things aren't exactly the way you left them. I mean..." She cast about for whether, and how, she should say this. "I'm a robot," she said at last. "I don't recall being a robot before I came here, but I must always have been. I guess android is more accurate. I seem to be exactly the same as anyone else, otherwise."
She blinked.
"I hope that's not a problem."
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Post by Teja on Mar 24, 2009 14:04:55 GMT -5
((See, Teja was logged in still, without my having to do it again, just as Rosalind was yesterday, but Emilie never freaking is! Rawrg. *chews up tablecloth*))
Teja's frown became very pronounced.
"I am so tempted to say, how very atheist, but that sounds really condescending and I don't mean it to be. I mean, I don't know if I believe in souls like your average person believes in souls - Like, I could very easily believe there is a soul to a rock or something outside, so basically, if I believe in souls, then why not think a robot has a soul? Or an android? But, I mean, if you don't believe in souls then I guess none of that really..."
She started winding down. "You know, I started out being kind of flabbergasted about the robot thing, but I kind of ended up with a lame apology for it. I'm sorry you're a robot. I hope it's not a problem for you, I mean. I'd be really upset if I found out I'd always been a robot."
Teja was suddenly vaguely concerned that she had always been a robot, and wondered if that had anything to do with being here with Kris, and then began to think this might have been a dream. 'Dear Kris,' the PM would say; 'I had a dream last night that I went to restaurant and you were the waitress and you took me into another room and told me you had always been a robot...'
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Post by Kris on Mar 24, 2009 14:45:01 GMT -5
((Hmm. What about the drop-down menu under the login, regarding how long to remain logged in?))
Kris listened attentively to this, not feeling the least condescended to at all. It was a valid question.
"It's a valid question," she said, because she was always stupidly delighted by the cheap narrative device of having a character think something and then say the exact same thing out loud. "I mean, even if one doesn't believe in souls, about which I really have no opinion either way, it's easy enough to construct the argument hypothetically." She wondered if this was a symptom of robotness, recalled she was always like this, and then realized that didn't help her either way. "But it doesn't seem to be a problem for me anymore. I was pretty upset when I found out, of course. It reinforced a lot of the anxieties I had growing up, about my own emotional state, and relationships with people. And..." She frowned slightly, in thought rather than in anger or dismay. "I don't know how this place works, but maybe that had something to do with it. All I know is there are wires and things inside, but I feel just like I always did. Which either means that there's no difference, or that I've always been this way. In which case... I guess if no one ever noticed, it means there's not much of a difference."
She paused, thinking about the new Battlestar Galactica, and The Silver Metal Lover, and all the other is-a-robot-human stories she knew and loved.
"Anyway, now I'm rambling, aren't I? No apology necessary. You seem to be more concerned about the atheism thing than the robot thing, frankly."
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Post by Teja on Mar 24, 2009 14:51:27 GMT -5
Teja, who had continued to look hesitant and slightly-concerned even throughout Kris' monologue (a cheap narrative device of which she was fond), broke into a sheepish smile at Kris' last comment, which would have been something of a jab from anyone else. Well, maybe it was still a jab. It wasn't a very unkind one, though.
"Well, the thing about atheism is, if you don't believe in a spiritual world, then does that affect the state of your spiritual being - aka, your soul? But, I mean. If you're a robot and you're an atheist at the same time, this conversation becomes unnecessarily... filled with stuff. Cluttered. You know what I mean? You have to wonder, do I have a soul?, and, does it matter? at the same time. Although... maybe being both at once makes it easier. I mean, if you're a Christian robot then you are likely suffering a lot of grief, and if you're a human atheist... You know?"
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Post by Kris on Mar 24, 2009 16:32:25 GMT -5
Kris laughed easily.
"All I can report is that I only feel that my own worldview is confirmed," she said. "Which, I guess, might seem condescending in my turn. But if it helps, it might make it easier for you than if I was a human atheist--it makes me compartmentalizable." She frowned. "Or something more closely resembling English. Anyway, it means you can assume my atheism is a product of my android...osity. And cease to worry about it."
She beamed, though she was well aware this would not curb any speculation on Teja's (or her) part. But it really didn't bother her. "I know I'm in the minority, that way. And I'm damned, if I'm wrong. But as a robot... I reckon I am, anyway." She said this fairly cheerfully, as she didn't really believe in damnation.
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Post by Teja on Mar 24, 2009 16:39:49 GMT -5
((I am amused by the fact that they are having our c-box conversations quite cheerfully and pretending like it's an actual thread.))
"I'm sure a robot wouldn't be damned, if there were damnation," said Teja, "which, having not been raised Christian at all, but something closer to Buddhist, I don't think there is." Although she had little background in science fiction, or in robots - having never really been comfortable with the concept of created lifeforms, like clones, because of the sorrow she found inherent in their stories, and the unease it brought her - she was finding it more intriguing to speak of as a friend of hers turned out to be a robot, and did not feel depressed due to that.
"I mean, if a robot exists, it is created, and then... But, wait. That sort of implies that robots don't have freedom of choice as Adam and Eve did and cannot choose to sin. That's sort of condescending, too, to imply that you can't be a jerk like other people. You know, I like it better when I'm saying there probably isn't any damnation," she decided. "I actually believe in reincarnation, sort of. I wonder if a robot could be reincarnated? And if so, could it be reincarnated as a person or would it remain a robot in its next life, too?"
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Post by Kris on Mar 24, 2009 17:02:46 GMT -5
((Oh god, they're, if anything, more ridiculous than we are.))
Kris, who felt the same way about stories of artificial lifeforms and robots but liked them because of it, was enjoying this vastly. Which implied she'd had some time to come to terms with this fact about herself.
"I guess that depends on how the robot is, er, programmed," she said. "Is the universe guided by God--or whoever--in every detail, or do we go with the giant clock theory? Do I have free will, or is my every reaction pre-determined? If the former, is programmed free will still free will? If the latter, couldn't we say that biology determines the reactions of all creatures? To some extent, of course."
She paused, tilting her head slightly to study Teja.
"I bet that's hardly comforting, is it? But if reincarnation happens, I don't see why it couldn't for robots, too--it might just be by a different function. Digitally, rather than... um, the normal way. I think it's all about paradigms."
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Post by Michelle on Aug 5, 2009 21:21:56 GMT -5
**NEW DAY**
After having her wounds tended to, and asking for directions, Michelle made her way from the infirmary over to the inn that the boy had told her about. Having no other contacts in this city, she'd decided to at least keep up with him--certainly, as one of the natives, he could help her orient herself as she settled in to this place.
She paused in the common room, glancing about, bag slung over one shoulder. Was he here? Or would she have to wait?
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Post by Brandi on Aug 6, 2009 9:07:14 GMT -5
*Brandi peeked her head into the common room, brow arched at the new arrival. But she smiled warmly and approached her.*
“Is there something I can help you with, Miss?” *She offered genially.*
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