Of Fazbears and Vaporwave Part 4 (2/?)

It took some convincing words, some careful bribes, and a few of Steve's rather unsavory connections, but
Syd finally had an old Freddy Fazbear's playtape to work with. For those not in the know, a playtape is the
audio clips and motions keyed to them for animatronics, a pre-programmed set of instructions and music and
jokes and sketches. It's sort of like a music box with dancing figurines, but bigger and clumsier, and had
sound quality appropriate for the 60's/70's equipment. Imagine forcing six foot tall mechanical
monstrosities being forced to gyrate and bend and piston and spin while playing Dolly Parton songs with
modified lyrics to be more kid-friendly.

The hard part was getting technology that could interface with the damn thing, the harder part was
convincing the droids to try the programming out once it was converted to a modern medium. It took the
better part of a week to do so, and just incase the haunted ones weren't willing, Syd had set up a few back
up droids between school work and living day to day. She also set them up with some movies to watch from
the last four decades.

The fresh droids were fashioned after old animatronics as well, new AI personalities for them as well. The
first was a dinosaur, a Tyrannosaurus Rex to be specific, named Tracey. Originally from another pizza
parlor called Dino Dan's, rival to Freddy Fazbear's, she was given a personality full of curiousity and a
little bonus programming of increased observational skills based upon her character who was a biologist
fascinated with nature. She spoke with a fairly American English accent, with hints of Canadian. Next was a
tiger, Tammy, originally a sports bar mascot and with a less savory intent and a rather provocative design.

Her new design was much more modest in proportions, her personality was tweaked to be encouraging and a
little nurturing, modeled more off a sports mom than a sex idol, and in the later part of the week actually
helped keep Syd focused on school work and helped with scheduling. To the dismay of Steve, she also had a
somewhat stereotypical, cartoony take on a midwestern mom accent.

The third droid was a bit more exotic, a sugar glider, Kite Kaboodle. The interns had a blast trying to get
the patagiums correct on the model, going through a few materials at one point even synthetic meat, but
finally reached a happy medium with something akin to a stretchy, slightly shaggy bathroom rug. The
character was originally a mascot for a restaurant that was known best for its fruit smoothies, and Kite
would explain the different fruits and countries of origin. As a droid, he was given a personality that was
child-like and curious about the world around him. That unfortunately annoyed the crap out of most of the
interns working with him.

The fourth and final droid was an animatronic bat named Beamz, tested out in only a few select Freddy
Fazbear's locations, where they had room to install a Laser Tag arena. While the original design lacked
eyes for fear of stray laser fire frying the optics, the droid was going to have much more sophisticated
optical sensors that could withstand weapons-grade lasers. The original model also had big, square 3D
glasses to hide the fact it had no eyes, a much more trendy set of glasses with an exterior tint to be red
on one lens and blue in the other. His personality was a very gracious one, his voice based off of a 1980s
cartoon segment advertising him at other locations, a voice that sounded as cartoony as most of the droids
looked. As an aside, the laser tag at Freddy's generally didn't do well, so they repurposed the area for
more arcade space, and repurposed most Beamz models to entertain kids in said arcade.

The difference between the haunted droids and these fresh droids was mostly notable as quite a few basic
concepts the haunted ones already knew from being alive were absent in the new ones. They had to be
instructed on the purpose of common things like furniture, silverware, and basic tools, but they caught on
fairly quick. The haunted droids protested, mostly Chica, Bonnie, and Foxy, that they were being replaced,
eventually getting over their grudging behavior in group therapy. The sessions were extended, as there were
significatly more minds to mull over.

------------

"Alright, just scan the set and props, lock them in, and activate the perform mode. Accept when it asks if
you want to give control over to the programming," Syd smiled as she tapped her artificial eye to make it
center again.

The sensation of scanning the room was similar to trying to light a lighter. Only instead of using your
thumb, squinting your eye to flick it. The visuals weren't anything unusual compared to a typical home
security commercial as a wave of light washed over and outlined the shape of all the objects in the room
visible only to them. Feeling for the machines was coming a little gradual as the haunted droids were
experiencing sensations and "flexing muscles" that didn't exist for them in life previously, and would
describe navigating the AR menus like forcing one's mind to crawl along a sheet of paper pinned to a wall,
like a spider, and to use a spindly leg to burst a single bubble of bubble wrap to select their options.

What came next made even the fresh droids uneasy, relinquishing control.

The droids all assembled in their respective positions, their limbs moving as though their own skeletons
had a mind of its own. They were all entirely aware of the actions they were performing, but it seemed as
though they were unable to do anything about it as they picked up their instruments and tools. Their mouths
moved of their own accord, the voices coming out of the droids sounded like them, but felt as if a parrot
resided at the back of their analogues for throats.

The performance began, a few of the droids had somewhat rigid movements as their simulated fight or flight
instincts kicked in, a few looked a bit worried as their bodies were singing some non-offensive songs from
Devo's final album. at the end of the first set, Kite scrambled off to hide in the bathroom, Beamz dropped
to his knees and whimpered, while the haunted droids save for Bonnie all walked uneasily and slumped onto
the sectional sofa in the living room.

"Well? How was it?" Syd asked, looking a bit concerned at the reaction.

"If I had a stomach, I'm sure it'd be emptying its contents. That was really jarring. More head-spinning
when my grandpa made me take cough medicine with some vodka," Freddy replied with a slight groan. Steve
frowned a bit as he went to the bathroom to check on Kite, knocking on the door before entering after a
squeaky response.

One of the interns who finally looked back at her screens, after being impressed by the performance, to see
what went wrong. Comparing brainwave patterns to some on a digital copy of the current DSM-5, she took a
moment to read the article. "Hm. Looks like an issue similar to responses to old virtual reality goggles,
boss. Brain has some kind of a gag reflex to the loss of control it seems?"

"Great. Well, I think Steve can help with that when he's back with Kite, sorry for the bad feelings
everyone, but we should have that ironed out for next time. Gotta work on some class assignments, if anyone
cares to join me, might be beyond some of your understnading, but I enjoy the company," Syd gave an
apologetic smile, the droids collecting themselves and nodding, a few joining Syd at the kitchen table. The
others decided to break out a classic board game to just chat and relax over, discussing news and
information they'd learned from different online sources.

-------------

"So I've been looking over tons and tons of resources, historical and recent, regarding my question and I
still can't find any sort of satisfactory answer, Maria," Bonnie said.

"Well, it's something we've been asking as humans as well, for millenia now, even we don't know what our
purpose is, if any." Maria rested her head on her palm as she listened to the concerns of the droids.

"Well, what does that make us, then?" Chica snapped a bit. A few of the others had come to expect Chica to
get snippy, but the droids did perk up a bit at her question, looking to Maria and Syd a bit inquisitively.

"Pardon?" Maria asked with genuine surprise as she felt the tension in the room increasing quite quickly
and suddenly.

"Well, if we're not human, what are we? I mean, I was originally born human, died young, and wound up as a
robot. Are we robots or humans?" Chica pressed on a bit, Maria looked a bit dumbfounded as she tried to
think of an answer.

"Err, well... Technically a robot is simple-minded and is designed for a specific purpose, not to mention
not really capable of thought. You're a droid to be more specific," Syd tried to help answer.

"So we're not made for any kind of specific purpose, but we're still machines, right? So why a machine with
no purpose?" Freddy asked this time. Foxy was staring at his hand and faux hook, Bonnie's ears had splayed
as the rabbit droid tried to take in this information, slightly regretting asking the question. The fresh
droids on the other hand were all mostly leaning in at the edge of their seats as they seemed more than
eager to hear more, their eyes wide and faces otherwise blank of expression, something that unsettled Maria
a bit as she scoot in her chair a little away from them.

"Well, you all have synthetic brains, not unlike human beings' brains, and with that intelligence and self
awareness, you're free to decide or experiment what meaning you want to try and find from life. To quote an
old movie, you are who you choose to be. You choose. Choose," Syd offered, recalling a line from an old sci
fi family movie.

"Well, how about my situation, with my human self still being alive but my mind being in this droid?"
Freddy inquired, taking his top hat off and holding it in his hands.

Syd took a moment to think and digitally thumbed through a text book from one of her classes and put on
display a little animation that came with it on AR. It showed a boat from ancient times.

"Well, I think the best way to think about your situation as well as Foxy's, Bonnie's, and Chica's, is
something like the ship of Theseus," Syd looked to the others, as they all focused their attention on her
and the animation.

"Ignoring the whole story setting it up, the gist is: Let's say you have a boat. The floorboards start to
rot however, so you replace them. Keep sailing for a while, eventually the mast snaps. You replace that.
This continues as parts of the boat wear out until not a single piece of the original boat remains. Is it
still the same ship?" The animation played out, showing the pieces getting removed and tossed into a pile
with new pieces replacing them. "To go further, what if a second ship is made out of all the old rotten
parts? Is that a new ship entirely, or the original ship, and if the latter, what does that make the ship
assembled from the new parts replacing the old?" Syd continued.

The droids all took a moment and a few were ready to respond before they all seemed to be rather deep in
thought and scratching their heads more of out programmed behavioral response.

"Well, the whole thing's a philosophical thought exercise really, there's no correct answer, but some will
say yes, some will say no. Just thought that might help a little in pondering what your existence is like?
I mean, humans replace all the cells in their body to create a similar effect every seven or so years, so
one could argue that the Jeremy Fitzgerald you've been visiting in that retirement home, Freddy, is not the
same Jeremy that was lobotomized," Syd tried to offer.

"But what does that make us, dear?" Tammy questioned, robotic ears perked up and posture straight as she
gave Syd and Maria a rather curious look.

"Well, you're not haunted or whatever, so I suppose that makes you beings who have to decide what you want
to do with your lives? You're all in charge of forming your own identities from here on out." Maria tried
to answer.

"Our own identities..." Tracy tapped her chin thoughtfully as she stared to the ceiling for answers.

-----------

"So, Steve. You're a neuroscientist, right? Why the focus on fashion?" Kite asked, invading Steve's
personal space as he felt the fabric and fiddled with buttons and flaps of fabric on his clothing.

"Well, when dealing with patients, it's good for them to have some sort of anchor when messing around with
their minds," Steve started, sipping some of the sake-based beer he had brought. "By being predictably
trendy, they have some sort of basis on which to evaluate their other thinking processes. 'I don't recall
my car being green, and I know Doctor Steve's trendy, maybe the fact he seemed color uncoordinated means my
ability to discern colour's off?' and similar issues," Steve responded, frowning a bit as Kite took his
glasses and then tried them on for himself. "That's kinda rude, you know."

"Is it? Sorry, doesn't seem like many here wear glasses," Kite responded, taking them off and trying to put
them back on Steve rather clumsily. "Why do you wear those when there's so many surgeries, gene therapies,
and implants that would let you see fine without them?"

"When you think of the greats of the last century, most of them wore them. Ghandi, Roosevelt, Malcom X, Ho
Chi Minh, among many others who've shaped the world before us. My father wore em, he's actually the one who
helped pioneer the current technology with artificial limbs and organs," Steve responded a bit proudly.

"Wow, I hadn't made any sort of hero worship connection. Fascinating! Think I might be able to be one of
the greats without glasses?" Kite asked a bit enthusiastically, wide-eyed and full of wonder as the two sat
on the side of the bath tub, he folded his mechanical arms across Steve's shoulder and rested his chin on
them as Steve tried to lean away a bit.

"It's possible, you can choose what you want to be and all. Erm, do you mind? It's kind of awkward having
you so close, did Syd make you all touchy-feely?" Steve raised an eyebrow, adjusting the glasses to sit
properly on his round face.

"I believe I was given a curious personality, Doc Steve," the sugar glider droid replied, cartoony eyes all
big and watery as Kite gave a look of admiration.

"Well... be careful then, curiosity can land you in trouble if you don't know how to restrain yourself,"
Steve carefully lifted the droids arms off his shoulder and scooted over on the bath tub side.

"It... Can land one in trouble...?" Kite asked, his voice trembling slightly as the droid cringed. Running
through the droid's mind was trying to think how to properly restrain onesself, as well as building
resentment that he was built to fail, based off this vague information.

"I'm sure you'll do just fine though... Kite was it? I'm afraid I'm not familiar with a lot of these
characters she's basing you guys off of," Steve took a moment to clean his glasses after noticing a smudge,
failing to notice the droid's concerned gaze.