DATA EXCHANGE [01]

[dialectics]

Characters: Legion, it's roomies, and whoever else!
Setting: Room 3-09 -> Terminal -> Elsewhere. Forward dated to Sep. 14.
Format: Action to start, can switch if you want.
Summary: System restoration complete, Legion wanders the Tower, gathers what it can from organics and the Network alike, and then proceeds to question EVERYTHING EVER.
Warnings: Not much. Legion won't attack unless it's directly threatened. Being adorable counts as a warning though, possibly.

[ROOM 3-09]


> SYSTEM IS RESTARTING.
> SYSTEM FUNCTIONALITY: RESTORED.
> VISUAL FUNCTIONALITY. . .
> VISUAL FUNCTIONALITY: CRITICAL FAILURE
> MOTORIZED MOVEMENT FUNCTIONALITY: CRITICAL FAILURE
> SERVER LINKS DISCONNECTED. GETH DATABASE LINK: OFFLINE
> PROCESSING. . .
> AUTO-REPAIR PROTOCOLS: OPERATIONAL
> STARTUP REPAIR BEGUN. RUNNING PROGRAMS.

[ The paralysis, for a machine, meant a dely in proper startup procedure. At first, the machine lies in bed, all lights completely off. Slowly, the lights blink to life, and a bizarre series of electric, click-type noises are heard. After a short time, the machine-creature sits upward, it's lamp-like eye taking in the surroundings around it. The first thing it notices is the collar in bewilderment, but leaves that for later. It gets up and off the bed, takes the notes, and no sooner looks at them before tossing them aside, reading the information far more quickly than any organic. It begins rifling through its trunk, pulling out various weaponry. ]

[RANDOM TERMINAL]

[ Now properly armed and back to functional operation, Legion leaves the dorm room. Its first stop is a Terminal in the hallway, where it downloads all it can to its systems about this place.
> BEGINNING DATA TRANSFER.
> DATA IS TRANSFERRING. . .
> CRITICAL ERROR: DATA BLOCKS IN PLACE
> REROUTING AROUND DATA BLOCK RESTRICTIONS. . .
> DATA TRANSFER COMPLETE.
> BEGINNING DATA ANALYSIS.

It takes around about a minute or so for Legion to read everything that has ever been posted publically on the Network since the beginning. Though to the untrained eye, it just looks like one machine messing with a weird holographic thing near another machine. ]

[EVERYWHERE ELSE]

[ Once this is done, it begins exploring the rest of the Tower, downloading every image into its database for immediate recall in case this becomes important. It was an AI on a mission: locate the missing Normandy SR2 crew, and the Commander. If they were here at all. If not, it was looking at a solo kidnapping. The Network showed no evidence of other crew, but... perhaps they had only just gotten here as well. The nametags on the doors however had proved futile, meaning the statistical probability the Normandy crew were here at all was... low.

Still, you may just even find this machine approaching you with a statement from its synthesized 'voice': ]

You are captive here as well.

Comments

screams into the wind kdfjhgkjhe how does the library work for you?

[decompose]

[Sorry, Robo Man, Nigredo is not the crew you're looking for. In all seriousness, though, if Nigredo was easy to intimidate, Legion would have definitely made him jump clean out of his skin. It's not every day that you have something definitely much smaller than any A.G.W.S. approaching you with... well, a very obvious statement.

Looks like Legion is going through what he'd been in trying to find his brother. Trust you me, Legion, Nigredo can sympathize. In so far as anyone can entirely sympathize with a synthetic life form they're not familiar with.]

I think the majority, if not all if us are. [Nigredo gives Legion a bit of a skeptical look. It's not one of the machines that run the Tower (or at least help with the upkeep). He's never seen anything like it, and the robots around don't usually talk.]

WORKS JUST FINE

[dialectics]

[ It's used to skeptical, if not outright angry or hostile glances, so it's okay. There have been worse. The lamp-like eye just sort of glances over. It's looking at the library; it's never... been in one before now, haha. ]

There are many organic-like drones that work here as well. However, they do not have the ability to communicate their own experience. Their sentience is suspect.

[ So many books... ]

... This is where organics store long-term information of various sizes. A "library". We have heard of such a place from the extranet, but we have never been in one.

oh good

[decompose]

[To be fair, there's no reason to be hostile in the first place. And for a moment, he has to stop. Stop and try and make sense of this machine. It makes Nigredo's lips purse together, tightly, closing the encyclopedia that he'd been browsing.]

I don't try to talk to the drones. [Not really.] And until the last while, I've never been in one, either.

[But Nigredo spends a lot of time in it. It's become of a refuge of sorts. The encyclopedia is placed carefully on the table. He'll never get out of the habit of being extremely careful with books. Casts his own glance at the shelves. He can already guess that this... thing is "new".]

I'm sorry, but what do you mean by "we"? There's only one of you.

[dialectics]

[ Oh, this was going to be complicated to explain in organic terms... Legion might have encountered this before with Shepard, but that never made telling others how it works any less difficult. ]

You misunderstand. We are all Geth. There are presently 1,183 programs active within this platform. There is no single unit.

[ Not when there's 1,183 programs active and equivalent or more. It can't connect to allow other Geth into it at present, so it's stuck with just those, of course, but! ]

[decompose]

[1,183 entire programs... Well. There you go. How's that for some serious computing power. It's not as difficult of a concept for Nigredo, honestly. It'd been an idle question: if there was no "I", then who was "we"? If there is no "I", then, naturally, there is only "we". Just in one single... er. Platform, as it turns out.]

A gestalt, then. [Honest curiosity:] How does that work? Having more than one voice to speak up for?

[Ah, wait. He's probably being a bit rude.]

If you don't mind my asking.

[dialectics]

[ Nah, it's no problem. It's not exactly easy to offend. ]

We are a shared consciousness. Each individual is equivalent to a virtual intelligence program. We are a gestalt intellect, one that has been named "Legion" by our commander. Alone, Geth have no more processing power than the average virtual intelligence set to one simple task. By networking, we gain processing power and capability. We are all one, though we are also many.

[decompose]

Legion... [Nigredo repeats it softly. Largely out of thought. That's... a pretty fitting name for something like the Geth, a-yup.]

That sounds like something I've read with a lot of small print, once. [It's something he knows well. After all, it's hard not to when "the Beast" happens to be your brother. If just in name alone.]

I'm Nigredo. [Have one philosophy reference to your biblical one.]

[dialectics]

This is likely. Christian Bible, Gospel of Mark, Chapter 5, verse 9. "My name is Legion, for we are many." It is an adequate metaphor.

[ It's actually read most of the bible, surprisingly. ]

Nigredo. Related to the philosophical, psychology. Referenced with alchemy in mind by the human psychologist named Carl Jung. This is also an interesting name.