Jump 414: Nier Automata

Jump #414: Nier Automata
>Ten of Cups (Satiety), reversed: Problems in domestic and social matters.
>Location: Free Choice
>Identity: Strange Being
>Drawbacks: (+200) What Was Sacrificed
...I come to, curled under a ruined bridge, wrapped in nothing but a ragged cloak and a worn outfit. And I have no idea what's going on.
>Glittering Gold (800)
Looking around, I find a puddle, and I don't recognize the face reflected. Brown hair. Gold eyes.
>The White Robot (600)
But I can't stay here. Something urges me onward. I don't recognize any of the people I come across... even though some look similar to me, and some are in more blocky or abstract bodies. They largely disregard me, though some look at me curiously, knowing that there's something different. That I don't belong as others do. But none attack.
>Deus Machina (0)
I can feel them. I know I could reach out, that I could affect them, potentially. And the world around me. A very strange sensation, and possibly a unique one as I don't see any of the others around me doing so.

Still, I wander the world. I feel odd tugs in a thousand different directions, and I follow them, walking through the world. When my feet get sore, I look at what some people have, and I create boots by plucking them out of thin air. It feels like second nature to me, but it nets me a great deal of odd looks. As I refine my needs, manifesting clothing and putting together a rather eclectic but comfortable outfit, it gets many more odd looks as I continue my journey. I wince as I inadvertently slice my arm on a sharp edge, leaving behind a trail of blood for a bit as my skin knits itself back together; it's not a thing that I would realize, that I've healed in minutes what most would heal in days at best.

And a few various machines start following me, keeping themselves a distance away. I remained unaware of them, though once in a while they'd catch up and converse with me as I travelled. Which... was neat, but I really didn't think anything of it.

I continue on my journey, meanwhile. And I come across something like myself... but... not right. Twisted would be generous. I tried to talk to it... to him, rather, but he was all but feral. Limbs too long, face twisted into a grotesque snarl, eyes red where mine were gold. I wasn't sure what to do, because nothing thus far had any hostile intent. I tried to talk to him, but he signalled his disinterest in parley by charging at me with a sword hammered out of rebar.

He attempted to beat me savagely, though it seemed... not entirely effective. Sure, he had a salvaged weapon, but anything he did didn't actually seem to take. Sure, I ended up bloody as hell, my clothing tattered because I only tried to fend him off, but it seemed as though any injuries he made on me simply wouldn't stay. And in the end, while I tried to wrestle the weapon away from him, he charged once more and was impaled through the heart.

And then I closed my eyes, abruptly remembering something that I'd forgotten. An Earth where everything was gray and worn-out. A sky filled with glittering stars and danger. Violent women attacking me before I even knew what was happening, and learning self-defense skills the hardest way.

When my golden eyes opened to the world again, I still felt pulled in a thousand different directions, but now... I had purpose. I looked at the weapon in my hand, as covered in blood as I was, and threw it aside. And then I twisted reality a bit, as I had been doing to manifest other things, and a very localized and brief cloud of rain cleaned me off; a towel, and then clothing, were the next order of business. And then I found myself face to face with a mismatched group of machines.

And I regarded them with a weak smile. "I'm sorry you had to see that," I told them. "I didn't want to do that, but... when I did, I remembered."

One of them, a squat square-ish machine with stubby legs and long arms, bowed. "Might I ask... what sort of android are you?"

I scratched the back of my head. "Android? I don't think I am. I'm human... I think. Or at least, I definitely was from what I remember? But those memories... they were from a very long time ago. Another world." I frowned and looked toward the sky.

Another machine, one with wheels rather than legs, advanced. "You... you are human? Truly? Aren't all humans on the moon? Are there more of you here?" it asked, sounding gradually more excited.

I scoffed, looking back down from the sky. "The moon? I don't know, you can bounce pretty well up there because you're super light, but I don't think I've ever lived there. But I don't know how I got here, I just woke up and... was here. I don't think I've seen anyone else like me, though."

"How do you do what you do?" asked the first machine.

I shook my head a small bit. "I wish I knew," I admitted, looking down at my open hand, a glimmer of random data there before it manifested a wide-brimmed hat. I shrugged to myself and put it atop my head, looking downward at the ground. "But... that thing, that twisted clone, it had no soul. But it had a piece of me in it. I felt it... and I can feel more of them in the world. I think I have to find them. Pull myself together."

The machine with wheels was quiet for a few moments before he spoke up again. "Would you come with us? There is someone we would like you to meet. His name is Pascal."

I smiled, looking back up. "I think I would like that."

It was a distance away, though. And our route was close enough to two more of my twisted clones. I didn't know how I could tell that they had no soul, that they were just monstrosities, but I gained more memories. Of space, of a civilization of man and machine walking side my side. Of a world where creatures from beyond ravaged the landscape and my death came in the form of a demon turned man. With the last bit of memories, I recalled how to grasp the hedron staff that belonged to me, and I replaced my now-ruined hat with the Unreal Crown. It certainly lent distinction, after all, being spikes of unreality adorning the top of my head. And helping me warp space when I wished, for I remembered exactly how to do that as well.

Pascal was a very interesting individual, I found. He took care of younger machines, those that were not a part of the machine network. And in addition to that, he was kind enough to fill me in on the state of the world over so many centuries. The invasion by aliens. The machines warring with the androids. Mankind fleeing to the moon. Which... on reflection sounded silly to me - this would mean that man had been up there for six millennia.

Oh well, no matter. I thanked Pascal, gave him a means to reach me that I pulled out of the digital ether, and continued on my way... far more capable than I had been, and knowing at least a part of who I was now, not to mention getting the hang of channeling some magic again, feeling how different it was from manifesting things by data. Power versus precision, I suppose.

Still, all of these things bore investigation. Now I wasn't just in the business of putting my twisted clones out of their misery (truly, their existence could be nothing BUT misery, for themselves and others) but also investigating the state of the world. Finding bloodthirsty machines that were a part of the network, managing to talk some down, avoiding those that I could not, for this fight was not my own. Returning twice when summoned by Pascal because his village because it was under attack, and either diverting or subduing the attackers.

And then, after I'd dealt with numerous twisted clones, I came across an interesting find: a crashed and buried alien spaceship. I didn't realize that was what it was at first, of course, I'd only seen two androids that I'd been shadowing for a bit go inside, and so I followed them. Gut feeling, you understand. But when I went inside... I heard fighting inside. Curious, I followed and found them engaged with two... well, they looked like men, but they were clearly manifestations of data with potential delusions of grandeur, going on about the nature of humanity, how they were such a mystery.

"I'd like to know the answer to that myself," I offered, staying out of the way. The fight slowed as attention turned toward me, but did not stop. "After all, the moon? Anyone with a beating heart would rapidly realize how terrible an idea it is to stay in a low-gravity environment, because they'd grow weak and their bones would be as strong as balsa wood."

"Ah, the wanderer. We've heard of you. You don't believe the moon would be a good place for mankind to hide?" asked one of the men, bemused, arms crossed. The other shifted in a golden stream of data, leaving the fight to stand next to his brother; the two androids remained ready for combat, confused by the whole turn of events.

"Well, no. Unless they like the thought of noodle arms."

At this, all four of them looked a bit bemused. "Noodle... arms?"

"Yeah," I replied with a grin. "You know, they look thick but can't hold any weight at all. Anyway, I'll offer you this: instead of finding a human to dissect, why not have a human find you and ask him anything you'd like?"

"So it's true," 2B murmured, "You're a human?"

I lifted a hand. "Give the girl a kewpie. To be fair, humanity here never advanced to stepping between worlds, and boy howdy have I been to a lot of them, so while I'm human... I'm not one of YOUR humans. Personally, I'd've figured that after a couple decades they'd have gone to Mars or something, but they probably left a token base on the moon. Or a relay. Assuming they're still out there, after all. A lot of things can happen in six thousand years, after all."

Both the men grinned at me. "That... is -fascinating-," one said, before the other added, "Stepping between worlds? Do tell."

I shrugged. "Eh, the world's on the back of a turtle, so to speak. If you've got the means you can hop from one turtle to another. Sometimes you have a bunch of turtles you can reach from one spot, sometimes only one or two. Sometimes there's only one turtle on the turtle that you're on, but there's another turtle below with more turtles... on... him." I slowly stopped as I noticed the androids had a slightly glazed-over expression, and the two men somehow looked both amused and exasperated.

At which point I waved an arm, causing a whiteboard to materialize behind me, and snapped my fingers to manifest a dry-erase marker. "Okay, let's try this again. Class is in session, I am professor Crux, and there will be no fighting in my classroom, mummified dead aliens or no. So I'll show you how this works, and then we can address other things. First, we start with a point..."

-----

"...I feel like humans are both the ugliest and most beautiful species I've met, though I admit I'm biased because I was born one," I commented, passing Adam another pint of Guinness. "I'm lucky enough that I don't have to deal with all of the endorphins and the mood swings constantly if I don't want to, owing to my nature, but when you realize that they're constantly fighting their base instincts and they've managed to build not just a society, but space travel? Gives you hope for the species, fragile as they are. It's too bad they're probably gone here, but at least there is life of a sort. Artificial or otherwise."

Eve drained his Guinness, then shook his head. "This is the strangest day of my life," he admitted. "How long have we been here talking?"

From his place on the floor, 9S volunteered, "Five hours."

Eve nodded to himself, then looked at Adam. "Well. Things have changed, wouldn't you agree?"

"Guinness is good for you," Adam slurred, and drained yet another glass.

"You can't even get drunk," Eve muttered.

"Don't ruin my moment!" came the over-dramatic reply, and Eve covered his eyes with a hand, sighing in exasperation.

"Right, so let's get onto the real meat of everything. How about everybody stops trying to murder everyody else for stupid reasons?"

"Moment ruined," groaned Adam as he sat up and treated me with a sour expression.

I palmed my face. "You know what ruins the moment? Seeing guys claim to be hyperintelligent and then they're bickering and fighting for no reason other than they enjoy it, without respecting the fact that being self-aware is a thing for everybody and everyone has an equal right to exist."

"That is a GROSS oversimplification," Eve mused, while 9S muttered, "Pretty sure if everyone realized that humanity was gone here, there wouldn't BE a war."

"Nah, they'd find other excuses, or erase the memory somehow," I replied, noting how 2B flinched in the corner of my vision. "Except they didn't factor in the fact that someone would show up who can break the rules, and who is a human on top of that, which throws everything on its ear."

"Fine, fine. We'll point you toward N2, they're the ones you want to talk to anyway, if you want to resolve all of this."

2B offered, "I'll... pass along your information to the Commander. She'll want to know about all of this."

I nodded, and stood as Eve muttered, sotto voce, "I still say we ought to dissect him."

"Sure," I said to him. "And we'll just pull apart your data core to learn how all machines work. No, there are some things that are greater than the sum of their parts, and sapient life is one of them. No matter the form of it. It just happens to be easier to see how it works when you're made of data as opposed to meat."

9S snorted, attempting to supress a giggle and failing. When everyone turned to him curiously, he looked embarassed, before explaining, "They're made out of meat. Thinking meat. Conscious meat."

As the implication of that set in, I fell over, laughing myself silly.

Convincing Eve and Adam to back off was easy enough due to the discussion over the course of the hours, answering their questions. 9S, having not found out through the usual methods but instead something completely out of context, ended up not being killed; the Commander segfaulted, from what I heard. Before I talked to the Terminals, I started teleporting around the world to regain my memories, following the pull of the existence of my clones. I wanted to go in there with everything intact, after all.

Talking to the Terminals... in the end, it was pretty useless. They were axe crazy AI, and in the end they refused to listen to reason. Now, it could be said that they tried. And so, there's only one thing to do when you have an AI that's been driven crazy: brain surgery.

On reflection was probably one of the stupidest things I could have done, but it WORKED. Granted, I burned an extra life in so doing and it's been a while since I've needed to do that, but it was worthwhile. The end result... the Machines no longer had a drive to destroy the enemy. The androids... well, they reacted poorly to a human later teleporting into the Bunker. After the reflexive panic, we came to an accord without the need for violence there.

Humans might be gone, but all sapient life on Earth - whether machine or android - were its inheritors. And after that was made clear to everyone... once a peace had been established, where everyone could look to a future together without needless destruction... I smiled, and disappeared.

(Diplomacy roll: 99 out of 100. Score.)