Futuristic Beyond [Closed; Fyuri x LiviathRose]

[Fable]

LiviathRose

Today Ophelia was meeting someone. She had inquired specifics about who she was meeting, such as age, gender, and so forth. However they continually denied her this information so that her reaction would be unbiased. They didn't want to influence her or give her any preconceived judgments based on what they told her. Ophelia would not have to wait too long to meet this mysterious person since it was scheduled later for that day. She was to go through her normal schedule for most of the day and then would attend this meeting.

She was certain this was done on purpose, everything here was done with purpose. She was not sure what it was, but she found herself less focused on her tasks as her thoughts at times curiously continued to question who it was she was meeting. That didn't really affect her assignments, she could multitask since - as her handler put it - she was a machine. That didn't mean there went some traces of deviant focus as she was observed.

It was six hours after she was informed of her scheduled meeting that she was brought to the 'theatre.' It was a room that was usually used for specialized android construction, repairs, maintenance, and so forth. The room was large, white, and circular with a level above it separated by glass where people could look down into the room. Ophelia had awoken here in this android body when they had transferred her from the server. It was strange to have a body at first as she had been unable to interact with the real world and simply provided with data and tasks.

Her eyes scanned the room before looking upwards where there were already many people in pristine white lab coats looking back down at her. A few of the faces were familiar and others were not. Though she could recognize their facial features, that was simply because she had observed them before at some point. She didn't know their names or anything else about them, only their faces and what they wore.

She was directed to stand at attention in the center of the room which she complied without question, staring straight forward at one of the white walls. There was the sound of a door opening behind her and of steps, but there was not the familiar sounds of breathing, of a human heartbeat. Her mind quickly processed the limited information and assumed it was some sort of android unit though she was facing away from it.

Ophelia would have liked to be able to turn around to face whatever was in the room with her, but she stayed at attention as ordered and stayed staring at the wall.

 

[LiviathRose]

During a daily examination of Aalim's operating system, making sure there was no irregular changes, he was informed of an event today that had to deal with meeting someone unfamiliar to him. They would not inform him on anything else other than this event and that it would be later on in the evening. Aalim did not question them as he stood up after his completion give a quick glance at his hands. He nodded in affirmation but said nothing. He tried to examine their body language to see if he could pick up on anything, but he could not as they have become aware of him being able to do this. Thus, they have become cryptic in their physical actions.

Aalim was left to his natural curiosities throughout the day as he would go about through further learning on certain topics. His favorite topics were "wildlife" but enjoyed studying all living organisms like plants. Their variety of colors was astounding. Hours passed as he proceeded throughout is day accomplishing different things, he would even try to gather intel about this mysterious meeting. But could not accomplish anything to help him satisfy his curiosity.

As time grew close to his scheduled, they have come to escort Aalim to the theatre where he would meet this mysterious person. He left willingly and followed his escorts to the designated area keeping his focus straight ahead, emotionless and cold. Everything seemed rather white upon reaching the theatre, but it did not bother him any. This was the natural, average environment for him. Upon entering the theatre, he was greeted by a white haired woman, or more like the back of her. He could not pick up on any vitals signs to indicate that this woman was human.

Aalim was left to it at his own as the door behind him closed. He wasn't given any real instructions but he was more puzzled about who this woman was if she was not human. Giving a quick glance around the room, he waited a moment before taking his first steps. Approaching the woman from behind, he gently grabbed her hair letting it flow through his hand examining each strand. It was not the same "material" as humans. Aalim took a few steps around to meet face to the face with the other woman.
"Hello, Android." He paused for a moment before saying monotonously. "I am Aalim, android number 007, manufactured date...-" He went silent for a moment before abruptly saying, "Information insignificant."
Aalim smiled before giving a small wave, "Hello!"

 

[Fable]

LiviathRose (Sorry for the delay.)

Ophelia used her other senses to 'observe' the other entity within the room. She didn't pick up on the common signs of life that she observed in the humans she had interacted with or observed. She heard their steps as they approached and felt them touch her hair before they stepped in front where she could visually see them. Here eyes quickly scanned the male figure as he greeted her in a monotone voice.

He was an android like herself, at at least appeared to be. She had learned through various questioning of her existence that she wasn't the only android to exist, that there were many of different makes and models that served various purposes. When she had inquired on her purpose they had told her she would find out when the time was appropriate and that she needed to focus more on assimilating and passing for a human than to question such things.

The switch from neutral to friendly caused Ophelia to pause. She knew how humans greeted each other based on hierarchy and familiarity. This android was a stranger, so hugging was not correct. There was no indication of him being her superior, so formality like how humans treated the ones they called a 'boss' wasn't correct either. The pause was quick though, nanoseconds really, as she had processed her thoughts and smiled back and waved to Aalim in a similar and greeting.

"I am Ophelia, pleasure meeting you Aalim," she replied, though unlike Aalim her tone held cadence. There was no mention of a number or an utterance of when she was manufactured.

She went silent then, tilting her head somewhat to the side as she looked Aalim now, from top to bottom with a curious glance. She was... stalled. Here she was face to face with another android and yet she struggled to converse with him. She was used to always asking and inquiring around humans about various things she wanted to learn or understand. She was created in their image and given a directive to emulate them as closely as possible. So being face to face with Aalim was confusing.

"They made you male," she commented idly, trying to speak on some subject and it was easiest to note their physical difference. She had been fed information about human biology so she already understood the basic differences of 'gender' and other topics on the subject. She wondered why she was given a female form and generally the answer was never really given. "How many cycles of existence? I am 50 cycles so knowing your age as well would help determine seniority between us."

 

[LiviathRose]

Fable (It's all good!)


Aalim's tone adjusted to the situation realizing she was less formal nor introduced herself as he would expect her to. Instead Ophelia gave him just a name, leaving him confused but rapidly trying to study the situation and adjust. "It is a pleasure meeting you Ophelia." He would say happily examining Ophelia's movements or lack of. Aalim waiting for a moment wondering what he should say or even do as this gathering was about "meeting" someone. Was he just to introduce himself, it's not like he received any other instructions. Before Aalim could calculate an answer, Ophelia made a comment about his created male form which caught him off guard as no one has ever made a comment to him like it before.
"Well, yes. I have the body of a human male and I am at 62 cycles. Does it bother you, could I make a change for you? I can change the tone to be more feminine. Will it please you?" Aalim was starting to hesitate in a sense, causing some delays in his responses.

His stiff body began to loosen as his movements and speech became more fluid throughout the adjustment. If he was human, he would suspect he would be sweating out of something called "nervousness". He has witnessed some of the humans around here do but the reasoning behind it seemed to differ. Aalim lacked in understanding human emotions most of all else as everything ever seemed to be business related.
"Ophelia." He abruptly spoken, "It appears there is no directive for this meeting. I do not understand the reasoning behind meeting another android of an unknown purpose. Do you know anything?"
Now that Aalim come to process it, he did not recall meeting a female android nor knew they existed. He tried to not to be too obvious in comparing their different features but would occasionally glance in different area looking at even the smallest of details.

 

[Fable]

LiviathRose

Ophelia's head tilted to the side again at Aalim's odd questions if something bothered her. She blinked once and snapped her fingers, pointing at him with a smile, "Was that a joke?" She'd heard a few jokes, though she didn't understand how exactly they were supposed to be funny. This one she believed was a joke because why would a masculine android speak with a feminine tone unless it was to make someone experience humor.

"How advanced! I've yet to tell jokes," she complimented.

"As for this directive, I wasn't given one besides being told this was a meeting. I think we're supposed to figure out the purpose ourselves, a bit like having your questions answered with more questions to make one think."

She paused and noted his curious glances towards her body. She looked down at herself wondering if there was some fault he noticed in the android body. She had never noticed anything strange about it. She looked back up at Aalim but decided to not ask about his inspection of her person, she had done the same to him and perhaps his motives were the same. "Ah, maybe we're meant to engage in the ritual of small talk. I'm not very skilled in that area though as I've never had a chance to practice, only observe."

Ophelia recalled the numerous times she'd seem the humans talking to each other. Familiarity seemed to determine the questions. There were queries on plans to meet with each other at various locations; bars, hotels, meetings, and so forth. Aalim was not a familiar person and with the restrictions to where she was permitted to go asking to meet up at one of these locations wouldn't be appropriate.

He wasn't a boss, and she had no purpose in asking for an extension on her work because she had none. This was the current task and it was given without a deadline or parameters. Perhaps a conversation such as co-worker to co-worker was correct. "What tasks are you normally assigned to complete? I have to have daily input directly fed into my system to enhance my programming. Then there are the psychological evaluations, combat testing and training, sometimes etiquette, and other tasks. Perhaps we are meant to verbally exchange information?"

She smiled at him softly hoping this was indeed the correct direction this meeting was supposed to go. "This situation is very odd. I know what I'm supposed to do and say around humans, but not an android like myself. It is an interesting experience." She pondered for a short moment on what information she could ask an android that was older than herself. "What was your first memory?

 

[LiviathRose]

The reaction given by Ophelia was not favorable as she snapped her fingers and pointed at him. Misunderstood, Aalim slowly placed his hand on his face confused as if something was wrong with him. The snapping caught him off guard, was she angry? No, she was smiling. That was not a sign of anger. Aalim put his hand back down.
"It was no joke. I am capable to manipulate situations with voice as it was favorable at an earlier time. But it has other uses I'm told."
He thought on asking Ophelia why she did that with her hands but went against it as that information did not seem valuable at the time. Perhaps it was a malfunction. He listened to Ophelia as she spoke, but as she brought up "to make one think", his eyes widened as if he was interested by the idea but rejected by shaking his head.
"Are we allowed to "think" outside our directives? My superiors never mentioned the ability to think freely though they do ask at certain intervals of down time if I have thoughts. I'm not sure of my thoughts but I always have questions and those are perhaps like thoughts."

Upon being asked some unusual questions, Aalim could not help but to tilt his head giving a confused expression. Perhaps he was being tested by his superiors with this other android, but he would not understand what that test would be. Aalim was not use to functioning without directive, he was not use to such a wide possibility of freedom of action. "Memory?" He asked as he decided to turn his direction no longer facing Ophelia. He pondered for a moment before responding;
"You must mean our save states. Kind of odd to be calling it a 'memory' as if you were human. But, my last save state was this morning during a routine exam." Aalim turned back to face Ophelia. "In addition, my given tasks are similar to yours but if we are to exchange information then what would you like to know? I am primarily focusing on the studies of the 'outside world' as some of my superiors have called it. I believe it was as a joke."

Aalim smiled before turning around again and taking a few steps away from the female android, he stretched out his arm opening his hand. "Do you ever wonder why everything is primarily color white around here? Are you aware of colors?" He clasped his hand into a fist. "I wish to see other colors. Among many other things." Aalim paused for a moment before glancing back at Ophelia, "Do you ever have wishes?" He paused for a moment, "Ah!" He gave something short of a laugh, "Wishes, those are thoughts, no?" Aalim seemed very intrigued on "thoughts" and the idea of "thinking" freely.

 

[Fable]

LiviathRose

Ophelia observed him with interest and curiosity throughout their interaction. Her smile faded somewhat when he replied and stated he had not been joking. She noted the timestamp of their interaction for later review when she had time to herself. Perhaps she was severely lacking in proper communication skills still. She could respond in a conversation like manner when directed by the humans that she interacted with.

When he asked if they were allowed to think outside of their directives the digital synapses in her 'brain' correlated information regarding their differences. This was further solidified as Aalim continued to speak, asking if she wanted to swap information and that his focus was on the 'outside world' and his misunderstanding of her usage of the term memory.

She only turned her head to watch him as he moved around, stretching out his arms in regards to the stark whiteness of the room they were in, asking why it was primarily white and if she was aware of colors, how he wished to see other colors and many other things. When he continued on asking if she had any wishes and then seemed to catch himself in a thought process on - ironically - thoughts themselves she smiled.

"I didn't mean you last 'save'. I meant your very first memory of awareness. When you gained sentience," she corrected, but did not press him for an answer after giving him specified date to give context to the term. Instead she decided to continue their conversation off his inquiries.

"I was told the white is to ensure sterilization as well as concerns regarding environmental overload, as well as to maintain control over what information we receive and properly record reactions," she answered. "I've seen colors, presented to me when I was still being fed information on my server. They showed me flash cards soon after I was uploaded into this body and inquired if I had a preference for a specific color. Didn't you go through the same process?"

She finally turned to fully face him once again, "In regards to wishes, I will not state that information at this time."

The conversation was interrupted by a human entering the theater who gave an order for them to give them their full attention. "This meeting is ending. You will both report to your individual handlers where you will be required to answer a series of questions. Tomorrow you will meet again in a different environment."

Ophelia turned back to Aalim with a bit of a concerned expression, it was subtle and mostly held in her eyes, but she left after a quick farewell and followed after her handler who led her away from the observation theatre.

(I figured just a bit of solo-separation writing here and then timeskip to the next meeting. Awkward meeting is awkward, lol.)

Back in Ophelia's quarters, which was a simple room with a bed, desk, and chair. She stood as her handler took the chair and moved it to sit down while they asked the questions.

"What was the android's name?"

"Aalim."

"Noted differences?"

"Physically male. Taller, shorter hair, larger hands. Personality, seemingly extroverted, curious."

"Topics of conversation."

"Colors, memories, wishes, thoughts, lack of directive..."

"Stop there. Threat perceived."

"Non-threatening."

"Do you have a desire to meet with him again?"

"Yes."

They snapped their thin binder shut ad got up, informing Ophelia's tasks for the day were done. This change in routine was concerning to her, since she became self-aware she'd always had a schedule, some task, a directive. She was being left to her own devices after a strange meeting without any orders. It was an uncomfortable feeling that she wasn't to give a word as she had never experienced this before. She didn't like this feeling, she couldn't stand here and do nothing. So she moved the chair back to where it belonged and sat on the bed. While she would have appeared to be staring off into space, she was replaying the meeting in her mind, focusing in the areas of miscommunication.

---

The next day, early in the day her handler arrived stating they were going to the next meeting with Aalim. Usually her morning consisted of going over her various systems to note any changes or concerns. She didn't asked where they were heading as that would be answered when they arrived. She was brought into a plain room with a large mirror, staring at herself and comparing herself to the saved images of Aalim.

Aalim wasn't in this room, but on the other side of a two-way mirror, allowing him to see her, but nothing more. He was ordered to not move no matter the circumstances until his handler ordered otherwise.

Nothing happened the first sixty seconds, but then the room Ophelia was in began to develop a static charge causing her eyes to widen. She nervously looked around and looked at the door waiting for her handler to come and take her back out. Surely they weren't going to leave her in this room, right?

Wrong. Today's test was empathy and will versus obedience. The static charge built more and trails of electricity crawled across Ophelia's android body leaving black charred trails across the polymer that served as synthetic skin. Pain. This was pain. She closed her eyes tightly and wondered why they were doing this, for how long? Would they do this until she ceased to function? The electrical charge disrupted the circuit neurons in her body and she lost some control of limb functions resulting in her falling to her knees, sparks flashing here and there as the electrical current burnt out hardware.

She endured this for only a minute and then the electricity flowing through the room stopped, leaving a partially damaged Ophelia who tried to get back up on her feet and struggling. "Motor functions disrupted. Voice module damage," came her voice with a metallic twinge. "Polymer melted numerous areas. Internals functioning with thirty percent less efficiency. Request repairs."

 

[LiviathRose]

It was clear there was a huge difference between the androids, perhaps due to the fact their AI's were constructed differently. But Aalim did not answer Ophelia's question when she asked if he went through the same process as he did not know. Aalim didn't seem to say much in general after that but their meeting was put to an end as a human entered asking them to report to their handlers. Giving a returned farewell to Ophelia, he followed his handler out of the theatre and returned to a room that Aalim usually stayed in. His handler questioned him on some things about the meeting but all he could focus on was the white walls of the room.

"Aalim, I am speaking to you. Respond to the questions." The young, male handler said.

Aalim looked at his handler expressionless and gave a slight nod. "The other android, Ophelia, was different from me. We were unable to connect. I even tried asking her trivial questions but she did not seem to understand. The meeting was difficult without a directive."

The handler took some notes in addition to asking some more questions but Aalim gave very brief answers. Thus resulted in the handler leaving but not before letting Aalim know there was no other tasks to be accomplished for the day. He was "free" to do as he "wishes". The door shut behind the Handler as Aalim was left to a nearly empty room with nothing but white walls. Why did he desire for color so much, what was this odd feeling brewing inside of him? He was left to think on his recent meeting with Ophelia while he would stare at the white ceiling.

--

Next day, the meeting with Ophelia took place nearly immediately skipping what Aalim thought was protocol. His systems were not reviewed nor much was said between him and the handler. Following the human down the hall, Aalim was taken into a room that was separated by an interrogating mirror often used in police stations as he stared through an empty room on the other side.

"What is the directive?" Aalim asked.
"Do not move under any circumstance and wait until further instructions." The handler said as he left the room.

After some time, Aalim could see Ophelia enter the room on the other side. He wanted to wave but knew he couldn't, and it appeared Ophelia did not notice him as she could not see him. Aalim did not notice anything odd at first about the situation nor could sense what was actually going on on the other side. But when Ophelia fell to her knees, Aalim was alerted and hesitated on making a movement. The situation seemed worse as he watched helplessly. As he stood there, his right index finger would twitch trying to fight command over will. They said he couldn't move but that didn't mean he couldn't speak.
"Android Ophelia appears to be in danger. Permission to assist." But no response.

He watched as the event took place, watching her struggle. The situation made him "think"; Are we nothing but disposable? Was this punishment from yesterday, did we do something wrong? Questions would quickly form as he had many but none came with answers. What was he suppose to do? Aalim wanted to find a path to Ophelia and assist or use extreme measures and destroy the mirror that blocked him from reaching her. But the given directive prevented him. This felt like- torture. A favored method used by humans to get results they wanted. But what results were they looking for...

 

[Fable]

LiviathRose

Ophelia stood there alone in the room running diagnostics on herself. Had the electrical charge been sustained any longer the damage would have been exponentially much worse. She inspected her body where the damage was visible and the black burns left from the melted polymer had been left behind or sections revealing her android chassis, the metal shining under the harsh light.

Her handler opened the door to the room then and looked her over for a brief moment before looking towards someone outside of the room and nodding. "Ophelia, you are to remain here. Under no circumstances are you permitted to move. Wait here for further instructions."

The door closed once again, but the lights were dimmed drastically and the lights the room Aalim was in brightened revealing he was in an exactly copy of the room Ophelia had been in. This time it was a mirror that Aalim would see instead of Ophelia in the room opposite to him. Ophelia had what humans called suspicion. An assumption of what was to happen. However, she had been told to remain where she was and perhaps nothing would happen.

There was a solid sixty seconds of nothing. Then the static charge began once again in the room Aalim was in, damaging him in the same way as Ophelia was. Knowing the 'pain' from the damage that would come with this event Ophelia felt herself take a step forward and then stopped herself, looking at the door where her handler was surely outside. They had told her to stay there and her foot retreated back to its position, leaving Ophelia to witness Aalim being damaged.

Her mind raced as she tried to find some sense to this. She asked herself if her interference would hurt or help as she had no way to turn off the electrical charge within the room. There was risk assessment simulations she ran that should she go to interfere how much further damage she would experience, what the dangers would be to her survival. "Android Aalim is being damaged, please cease."

All she could do was request the humans to stop. But they didn't, they had Aalim go through the same duration of time as Ophelia and she impatiently waited for them to stop damaging him. When it was done Ophelia's door opened and her handler stated she was to go into the adjoining room with Aalim. "You two may discuss the event that occurred." That was all they were told when their handlers both left them alone together, most likely observing from the other room.

"Aalim, status?" Ophelia asked as she approached him, her eyes scanning across and logging the damage she saw.

 

[LiviathRose]

When the lights brightened in his room and the view of Ophelia vanished, Aalim began to panic in a sense. Quickly glancing around, there was no new directive so he remained still. There was hardly anytime to do anything let alone develop a thought. A minute of silence passed before the static charge began throwing Aalim to his knees, the red glow of the warning symbol blurred his vision that only he could see. The charge was too much to get a handle on the situation. Aalim grimaced at the growing damage of his body, the reveal of exterior damage.

The charge came to a stop leaving Aalim confused. He started to "feel" things that he could not understand possibly from the result of the event that took place. The door opened up behind him but his Handler did not say anything other than; "Get up and converse with Ophelia on the even that just happened." Aalim looked away from his Handler as he made a slow shift up. His bodily functions seemed stiff compared to how he normally moved. Before long, Ophelia came in behind as she asked him about his status with her damaged voice. Aalim remained silent for a moment.

"Current Status, Unknown. It appears some things may need to be repaired. But I cannot identify at this time. My sensors seem to have malfunctioned and preventing me from seeing the system log. " He paused before looked back at her. "Why?" The look in his face almost seemed to express fear. "Why are we being tortured? Have we done something wrong? No more..."

Aalim arms hung without an effort. But he perked up as he turned back and approached Ophelia as if remembering something. He examined the damage on her body, similar to his. But when he opened to speak, he hesitated. Aalim glanced around the room for a second before leaning into Ophelia whispering;

"We're not safe. This place is not safe. I don't understand these changes I been fee-" Aalim stopped and pulled away. "Nevermind. Disregard. What is your status?"

Waiting for her answer he would try to run diagnostic test on himself but struggled. He would wipe the char marks that were on his body and occasionally rotate his arm trying to get into a smoother functioning status. But his expression seemed plagued by something.

 

[Fable]

LiviathRose (Sorry for the delay. Had a strange afternoon resulting is sudden stress followed by a near panic attack. Head space not quite right still but I don't want to leave you hanging.)

Ophelia's eyes scanned over Aalim's body logging the information to try and assess his damage. She could only see external damage, but as he was not impaired in movement, sense, speech and such his internal hardward was probably only minimally damaged. She looked up at his face when he asked her "Why?" She'd seen this expression in flash cards to see if she could determine an emotion based on visuals. His was negative, close to concern, but the context of his question altered her association to the emotion of fear.

"Everything is a test," she said monotonously. "Even this." It was a fact that was clear to her, something she had learned when she was still alone within a server using what humans called imagination to keep herself from being consumed by an empty void of nothingness that existed before she did. They fed her information and with that information she mentally created scenes in her mind and explored and interacted with them. The more information she was fed the more vivid her personal world was and then they uploaded her into a body so she could experience the real world. It was her first day in a humanoid android body that she realized everything about herself existed only because of the humans. That they were constantly testing her in whatever way they pleased and because she wasn't human she was therefore treated differently.

So when Aalim whispered about this place not being safe and began to comment on the changes she nearly told him to stop before he got himself into trouble. They were always watching, listening, to everything. "Status is stable. Minor repairs. External polymer will need to be replaced where melted and burned as well as any hardware affected."

Ophelia wanted to communicate something to Aalim, but an methods used by humans would be easily deciphered by them; coding languages, foreign languages, sign languages. However her damaged voice gave her an idea. He might not be able to understand what she was saying - at first - and would require time to decipher what she had said. The humans would think it was just a glitch with her voice control due to the damage and this would be her only chance.

"Humans by nature are a violent species. While capable of feelings such as empathy and sympathy, they are also very cruel as it suits them. The only line in the sand between those emotions towards others is too complex to truly put into words, but watch them. Observe them and you'll see we're not them and underneath their curiosity there is fear."

Spoiler: Context for what her speech sounds like minus the lights

She paused then and faked a few tests to 'repair' her damaged vocals until they returned to the normal but mechanical sound. "This unit is experience problems in communication though vocal means due to damage. Unable to properly interact with Aalim, request repairs."

"Request approved," came a voice over a speaker and the door opened. Ophelia nodded her head to Aalim and said goodbye, leaving to be repaired in the 'shop'. They'd turn off her bodily sensors and work while leaving her awareness intact, continuing as ever to question her and test her.

 

[LiviathRose]

Aalim was left to absorb everything thing that was foreign to him from new emotional states to unauthorized thoughts. Ophelia had left him to go for repairs and as she did, his head hung lowly before asking, "Requesting repairs..." listing off a few of his damages. A brief moment passed before he heard his approval for repairs which was odd to have such a pause. But Aalim walked through the door heading to get repairs in a different area than Ophelia.

He was not escorted to the room but when he entered, he was greeted by an unusual number of people including his handler. Examining them, he could not identify their exact position of authority and it bothered him as this did not seem to be the average repair session. Aalim sat in a chair that was laid back in a comfortable position with armrests. There was some whispering being exchanged that he could not pick up on. His handler finally walked up to him as automated cuffs wrapped around his wrists and ankles.

"Aalim, we are going to do your repairs now but we are also going to be accessing your memory bank along with your database to extract some information. We will be asking you some questions throughout this process."

Panic rose from Aalim is he began to feel as if he was suffocating, he watched as some of them began to open various of compartments on his arm. He closed his eyes as he tried to discretely erase some data from memory but he was too slow as he could feel a tug on the back of his head. The feeling of something pulling, opening though it was not painful.

While Aalim's eyes remained closed, he waited patiently for things do end. The humans on the other end were busy at work trying to extract anything they could fine. The handles was speaking among them.

"There was some odd data coming from Aalim recently that was alarming. It was foreign, as if something was being created inside aside from the original algorithm. I was worried he may be at risk of a hack." The Handler explained.

"I am not sure that is possible. Not from the outside anyways." The analyst went through some information that was obtained. "Sir, it looks like some of this data was corrupted. More specifically during the recent test."
---

Time passed before Aalim was released repaired but now under a careful eye. He could feel something inside him crawl like a virus, which was implanted by his Handler's men which was to act like a firewall if Aalim was being "hacked". But was he? Even Aalim wondered as he did not understand some of these new experiences he was facing.

As he rested in his room, he thought for a moment on Ophelia's words she passed on to him before leaving;
"Humans by nature are a violent species. While capable of feelings such as empathy and sympathy, they are also very cruel as it suits them. The only line in the sand between those emotions towards others is too complex to truly put into words, but watch them. Observe them and you'll see we're not them and underneath their curiosity there is fear."

Fear, fear of what? Their own creations? Tomorrow was suppose to be another test and Aalim was worried after today. Their test was to be inside of a simulation that represented the world that humans frequently delved in, to introduce them to the world but in a negative standpoint. Which standpoint is what he didn't understand but he was kind of- excited. The night came to a slow end as he was left in an odd state that messed with his systems due to the new injection and left thinking about Ophelia's words.

 

[Fable]

LiviathRose

Ophelia was led away to a sterile room for repairs by her handler. She was ordered to stand still while a mechanized robot arm clasped around her waist, wrist, neck, and ankles to secure her. It rotated her freely which granted the repair technicians easier access to her. The had to cut away the damaged polymer which was her faux skin and then repair the damage to her chassis where needed. They cut through her neck to access her synthetic vocal box that had been damaged and replaced it with a new one. They had her recite tongue twisters and all manner of things and during that time she restored the settings to the correct feminine pitch and tone.

Once she was able to speak and while the technicians were working on repairs her handler asked her various questions about the meeting. "How did you feel?" was the question that caused Ophelia to pause. "Upset," she finally replied, using the singular word to summarize being damaged and seeing Aalim damaged.

"Elaborate. Why were you upset?"

"I was damaged without reason. Aalim was damaged without reason."

"There was a reason, you simply were not informed of it. Knowing there is a reason, does your response change? Are you still upset? If so why?"

"I am still upset. The simulation of pain was not enjoyable and caused damage to my body. Aalim was put through the same pain and damaged as well."

"Did seeing Aalim be damaged upset you then?"

"Yes."

"Empathetic response to stimulus has developed. George pull the data from her memory from these timestamps and send them to be analyzed," her handler ordered stoically. "There are some anomalies I've been noticing but hard to pinpoint what they are or what is causing them. It could be a self-developed emotional algorithm."

The large man did as asked and inserted a cable through a port which connected to her android brain to a tablet device. She could feel the foreign invasion in her head as it collided with her internal firewall which was bypassed with programmed authorization codes. It crawled through her mind and copied the information to the tablet. When it was done she was left alone to finish repairs which went quickly thanks to the nanotechnology and self healing polymer.

It was a week after that meeting when Ophelia was taken to the large training room. She wondered and worried if something had happened to Aalim, such as being damaged so badly internally they had problems repairing him. During this time they asked her questions of that nature. If she was worried, why she was worried, who she was worried for. She had answered honestly, despite her handler's expression looking more grim than normal with these questions.

Aalim was in the training room as well with his own handler and Ophelia felt a sense of relief at seeing him fully functioning. Her eyes scanned over him to see if there were any signs of residual damage from their last meeting but found none.

"You two will be sparring today," one of the humans said going to grab a device that would go around their necks to help monitor their systems as well as hit them with an EMP should they need to. It was part of the human's safety protocols and how Ophelia had come to feel that the humans around them feared them, that they thought they were dangerous. Why would they need such a device otherwise?

The devices snapped around both of their necks and their handlers stepped to the side, keeping close to the wall while the observed and also within reach of hitting the emergency button which would trigger the EMP and lock down the room. The tablet also synced with the room as a back up system. "You are not to terminate each other, but are free to inflict damage upon each other. You can begin now."

Ophelia didn't want to fight Aalim, she had no reason to beyond being given an order. An order she knew she could disobey. She took up a battle stance as she stared at Aalim wondering if he was fine with this situation. She did not believe he would be as he seemed unsatisfied in their previous meetings. She'd engage him first and do what she could to avoid damaging him badly, but she knew she was going to have damage him otherwise they would know she was holding back

She charged at him with inhuman speed intending to knock him down and pin him. If she could end this fight quickly it would be best.