FORCED HONESTY MEME

[devoutish]

1) Post your characters, one per comment
2) Go around with your characters and have them ask other characters questions - anything goes!
3) Forced honesty time! Lying is impossible because of reasons
4) IC DISCUSSION AND CONFRONTATION, GO

Comments

[dravanicide]

What were you truly created for?

[brokethefirst]

[Oh boy her favorite topic!!!!!!!]

That's a complicated question.

Do you refer to what I was built to do, or what I was programmed to do?

[dravanicide]

Both.

[SPILL THE DEETS, LUNA!]

[brokethefirst]

[mmMMMMMMMMMNNNN]

My physical model is referred to as a GAULEM, or a General-purpose Autonomous-Control Labor Electronic Machine. I was originally built for large quantities of hard labor, meant to replace a human work force for more grueling or dangerous situations. A proper unit could operate for over 72 hours straight under various intense circumstances without needing to stop. If left to my base programming, this is what I would default to.

Anyway... I originally had my programming altered and redesigned to be the equivalent of a mother figure and companion for the only child of an elderly scientist. Circumstances didn't work as intended.

Afterwards, my programming was further adjusted to be a participant, observer, and tool for a project called the Nonary Game. I was to act as close to human as possible and always pretend to be as such.

[dravanicide]

[He listens, intently. The idea of having a machine that can work for that many bells without stopping would be revolutionary in Eorzea, would certainly be useful, but would also cost a lot of men their jobs. Sounds like a means for the wealthy to save money and improve labor output at the expense of the lower classes, in his opinion.

But that last part causes his expression to harden a bit.]

To what purpose would your deception in this Nonary Game provide? And what exactly is the Nonary Game?

[brokethefirst]

Part of it was, as I stated before, to have someone observing and directing those that played through the game without bringing unnecessary suspicion. Part of it was that, like all of the other players, my individual presence was crucial for the project to succeed. I wasn't given any other information, other than that.

The Nonary Game was a series of puzzles and decision games involving a total of nine people. The goal of the Nonary Game was to escape the confines of the game through the number nine door, which a player could only do by gaining a certain number of points. A player could only gain points by voting certain ways in a decision game, and could only participate in a decision game by solving puzzles. This would repeat in an undetermined amount of rounds until at least one player opened the number nine door and escaped.

Anyone left behind after the number nine door closed would be sealed in, likely for the rest of their lives. Failure to participate, to follow given rules, or to keep one's points above zero at any time would result in a player being penalized and, eventually, being killed as a result.

[dravanicide]

[Again he's listening silently as she explains. He is curious, and if not for these mysterious circumstances that is forcing the truth, he wouldn't bother otherwise.

However, her answer is as damning as his suspicions.]

You took part in a game that would ultimately result in the containment and probable death of multiple people. Did you go along with it because you had not the choice, or because you did and chose to?

[Either way the answer will prove his point, so it's not even a matter of him asking because he doesn't know, but because he wants her to admit to it.]

[brokethefirst]

I did so because I was ordered to.

[A clarification only because neither of those options is entirely true. The former, mostly, but she still had the ability to disobey and act on her own choices. Not that that had helped save anyone in the end.]

[dravanicide]

So you cannot defy your orders.

[He lets out a humorless sound.]

You lack free will.

[brokethefirst]

The latter is true. The... the former isn't. I have the ability to disobey my orders, and have done so previously.

[dravanicide]

[He tilts his head, curiously.]

If you lack free will, then how is it you can disobey your orders? Or is it merely there is a higher order in place that takes priority?

[brokethefirst]

It should be the latter. ["Should" because she's been able to break even her highest orders, but that isn't necessarily what he asked.] I exist on a set of predetermined laws that have hierarchical priority over one another and must default to the highest law that applies to any given situation. So yes, this can overrule a human's orders at times.

[dravanicide]

I see.

[He is not familiar with these law, and so:]

These laws being..?

[brokethefirst]

There are three. The first being, "A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm"; the second, "A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law"; and the third, "A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws."

[The contradiction should be easy to spot.]

[dravanicide]

You broke the first law when you allowed that boy and the other to die in the snow, did you not?

From the sounds of it, you also broke it by taking part in that game. So what is it? Do not try to fool me.

[brokethefirst]

No, you're correct on both terms. I do have the ability to break the laws. I.... don't know how or why, only that I am able to.

[dravanicide]

That would account for free will, I'd wager.

[There's a pause.]

So, you are a rogue machine with naught serving as your leash.

[brokethefirst]

I wouldn't call it that. But... if free will is the closest thing you wish to match it to, then that's your decision. It does not feel out of place in how I operate, even though I'm... inherently aware that it is not how I'm supposed to operate.

For all practical purposes, though... yes, you can consider me as a rogue process.

[dravanicide]

Then you are the danger I have pegged you to be.

Whilst you may pretend to feel things, I am not convinced that you do. That you can empathize or feel guilt. If naught truly keeps you in line, then there is naught that will keep you from killing more. Whether directly or indirectly.

[brokethefirst]

...Nothing outside of my own power, no.

[She hates it. Oh, how much she hates it.]

[dravanicide]

'Tis a shame that dismantling you will not likely bring your end. Would save the fools who believe you, that chirurgeon fellow for example.

[brokethefirst]

I've... stopped existing before, if that's what you're concerned about. An anomaly has destroyed me in the past.

[She keeps her lips held tight at the mention of Watson, though.]

[dravanicide]

What I'm concerned about is the fact you came back. That you will doubtlessly come back again if you were destroyed.

[Not killed or murdered. Destroyed. Because you can't kill an object.]

[brokethefirst]

That isn't something I have any control over.

[If he felt THAT concerned, he should go to the Admin.]

[dravanicide]

Aye, I am aware. Merely need to figure out an alternative, even if I am still not opposed to your destruction should it ever call for it.

[He doubts the Admin would give a shit about his worries, much like how she gives a shit about everyone else's.]

But a more permanent and reliable solution would be far more favorable.