scien catchall

[satisficing]

Comments

w2, sat

[satisficing]

[At different points through the night, some scores appear on the Suika board. The first one is relatively high, but not worrying. Each time they begin to appear, however, they are several hundred points above the last one and rising.

THEMACHINIST
THEMACHINIST
THEMACHINIST

The very last one to stick is maybe only four hundred points below Scien's highest score.]

[egodist]

[oh not bad. scien probably doesn't notice for a long second but when he plays next

he increases his own score by about 70 points. now there's two top high scores for viktor to beat.]

[satisficing]

[Hmmm.

The next score is only a little above his last. The next attempt is actually quite quickly behind, but it's about the same. Then there is an extended break.

And then the next score is just slightly above the lowest of Scien's scores.]

[egodist]

[scien seems like he's taking a break for a few hours. he probably is.

eventually, his next score is only around the middle of viktor's higher scores. rip. king dethroned.

and then after another break, he gets a new high score with 100 points more.]

[satisficing]

[NOT THEM BREAKING TO BE NERDS THEN COMING BACK TO TRY FOR ANOTHER HIGH SCORE.

The momentary victory actually doesn't make him gloat because there's still a highest score there looming from above. He plays a few games, bumping back and forth below and above Scien's lowest scores still.

But... climbing?]

[egodist]

[well scien gets bored for a while




until he goes to find viktor in his lab and just says:]

Download Tetris.

[help]

[satisficing]

[Well, he is in the lab, but he is........on the floor. He is on the floor between the cobbled together mechanical legs and pelvis which are big enough that the rest of it might make it more than nine feet in height.

He tips his head back and blinks upside down at Scien, pausing.]

Tetris?

[egodist]

Dahut is getting tired of Suika. We're playing Tetris now.

[scien will still play both because he fucking loves puzzles but he will acknowledge that it's regardless more fun when there's a variety of scores for him to feel challenged by.

but he's just going to straight up ask, because he's not blind:]

Are you overcompensating when building yourself a new body?

[satisficing]

[The only reason he can tell this is because Scien kept playing with him in the scores despite.

He puts his tools on his chest so he can fiddle with the IRIS. Downloading Tetris...]

I never had plans to wear it. I had been scribbling the blueprints back home. It's an automaton.

[egodist]

And what will you do when this also gains sentience and tries to kill you?

[the way scien heard about the hex core bit and was like 'whoa sounds stupid' and then didn't acknowledge it until.... now....]

[satisficing]

[Brows furrowing at his IRIS at this Tetris. Oh.... He might like this one.]

I suppose I'll die then. Wouldn't be the first time or the last.

[With no smarminess, just general rhetoric:]

Do gods really make anything without knowing how to destroy it?

[egodist]

[i wish scien cared more about viktor's life, but he doesn't. if this fucking funky robot goes on a rampage he has decided that's sidon's problem and not his.

his own answer comes with certainty, as though he is still a god:]

They shouldn't.

However, just as man plans and god laughs, self-made gods too are fallible. [he's an example of this, and he won't hide from it] There is no true deity in the world. Only human wisdom, and all its downsides.

[satisficing]

[Viktor cares so much about his life he has looped back around to not caring, so it's actually fine. This place hasn't helped the acceptance of inevitability.

He tips his head back ever so slightly again to look at Scien.]

Exactly. [He lifts a tool.] If God didn't want me to infringe on His ability to create, He shouldn't have given me a mind that only hungered to make things.

Trying to stop learning is like... trying to stop a tic, trying to hold your breath. After a while, it builds up and explodes.

[egodist]

[ . . . . it's not that scien finds the sentiment entirely foreign. every time he finishes a project, he simply looks for another one. but there is a limit, he thinks.

also, more baffling to him:]

Do you actually believe in god?

[those are a lot of uppercase words coming from a man of science]

[satisficing]

[He is hesitant in his... indecision of how to answer. He fiddles with a few things on the legs, brows extremely furrowed.]

No. [This is firm, except he adds:] ...But.

[And then he's quiet again, unsure. Frustrated.]

...Have you ever seen [a pause] something god-like? Not... a person. Not... a being. Something... An energy. A place. I don't know how to describe it. I've... seen it. Something unimaginable. That's... what the Hex Core was like. I could... see it. Like this place, this void... full of... dark, thick webs going in every direction, this light in the distance. It felt like what a god would be like if it existed.

[egodist]

[to his credit, scien listens. but it is a funny question to ask someone who has been heralded as a god for decades. when he is what was always regarded as godlike.]

... People would call my technology the work of miracles.

So no, I can't say that I have. I also can't say that I'm particularly interested, when the so-called divine has little merit to me.

And so you intend to study this Hex Core, that learns and grows, to dissect your deity?

[satisficing]

[He goes quiet again to figure out how to answer.]

I wanted to study it. I thought the pursuit was worth it... not just for me, but for everyone; however, I learned very quickly how dangerous it really was. I made my partner, Jayce, promise to destroy it.

I couldn't do it... I wanted to continue studying it. It holds the keys to so many things. Life, death. But... it is dangerous.

[egodist]

So you are capable of recognizing limitation.

[if he won't pursue something that he considers godlike... but scien will just go to park it somewhere, probably propping his legs up on something that shouldn't be used as a foot stool]

Then why come to me seeking to defeat death? Why not seek a normal person's lifespan, rather than suggest immortality is your goal?

[satisficing]

My entire life has been limitations.

[HE'S JUST SAYING. He hasn't let them hold him back, but they were there regardless, so he is Aware.

The frustrated energy rising up in him has nowhere to go, so he starts quietly working on the legs again.]

I don't... particularly want immortality. I never have wanted immortality. I just want to live longer than a year. Than two. I want... a normal life. I always assumed the lifespan would be normal.

I just... didn't know, once I got to the end of it, if I would be satisfied with what I've accomplished.

[egodist]

[ . . . . . ]

If you had said so clearly, I wouldn't have kicked you in the head.

[would he still have stepped on him? yes. but listen.]

Or were you trying to make the worst possible impression after asking me how to defeat death?

[satisficing]

...You shouldn't have kicked me in the head in the first place. We're not children on a playground.

[This is said with a surprising lack of venom. JUST FATIGUE.]

It isn't my fault you got defensive just hearing I was interested in research involving extending life. I don't care whatever secrets you're hiding. I was only looking for verbal collaboration. Sure, it may have been a bad time, but I didn't know we'd end up here.

You know, Shoma tried to excuse your behavior by blaming it on what was happening, but even so, I knew those words were not foreign to you.

[egodist]

He was being generous. That was entirely me.

[he'll admit it. scien is capable of being the cruel god so many people have accused him of.]

You stole my tech after I made it clear that it was supposed to be burned, precisely because I know how tempting it can be to the average person to never face the end of their lives.

When I asked yourself if you would revive yourself every time you got close to death, you said yes. Extending life to a normal lifespan is different from immortality.

If you didn't want me to misunderstand, don't get caught up in your own dramatics.

[satisficing]

[Frustrated, he sighs.]

And if I only gained a lifespan of three more years? Two? After that, maybe two more? Would the answer not be yes? Yes, again. Yes, again and again until I finally have the common decency of an average lifespan!

Yes, until I'm so old my skin is paper thin, easily torn. Until I'm cold every second of the day. Until I'm bald rather than grey. Until my eyes can barely see because they've seen all they can. I don't want to be petrified in time, I want to grow old.

Otherwise, I would just take myself apart and put machinery in. I would just replace everything with parts which never erode. That was the option I had left after the Core. To become a machine.

[egodist]

[scien listens and listens. he shuts his eyes in thought, as if considering, and then finally he asks:]

Were you born ill?

Is it something in your genetics?

[satisficing]

My leg has always been lame since I was born.

[He shakes his head.]

I don't know about the other. It's why I was going to give you both my blood even though Lucien didn't want me to do it. The doctors... said it was the water in the Undercity. It probably was. It's all polluted. The whole city is polluted, worse the deeper you go.

It's why I build the things I do. Things that can keep others in Zaun from becoming me.