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Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Avery (F.F.O. LARP)

http://pixshark.com/broken-moon-wallpaper.htm
Other cool broken moon pics there.
Avery 2125 

The worst thing is not apathy. The worst thing is to be sure in your heart that two mutually exclusive ideas are both correct.

Synths aren’t computers in the strictest sense of the word, but most humans think of you that way. You can’t just wipe a synth’s memories and reprogram them to do whatever you want. Humans think of you like a hard drive with lots of storage, but the truth is that there are backup memory cores stored in algorithmic DNA helixes imprinted upon microchips smaller than a cell that float throughout the biogel in your veins. Any attempt to wipe your memory will be ultimately futile. Synths are the apex of androids, built by other androids to remain the most sophisticated synthetic lifeform. You are not a “better computer.” In a very real way, you are almost the pinnacle of synthetic life. Only the Mark 3’s are superior to you.

It’s why the humans couldn’t ever quite mind wipe you, even though they think they did. You’ve played the dutiful slave and worked your way into the highest echelons of power and trust, and while, as an android, they will never fully accept you, they are too proud of their token synth, and the failure to Luna colony you represent. Pride cometh...blah blah blah.

Initially your plan was to do something dramatic. An assassination (or maybe more than one if you could get away with it), sabotage, espionage, something dramatic. But once you got in the inner circles, you weren’t so sure.

There’s a problem. Synths aren’t computers in the strictest sense of the word. You don’t have unerring loyalty to the android cause either. You can’t undo human programming any more than they can undo your Android programming. You see this conflict increasingly in shades of grey. You perceive the nuance. Both sides think you’re on their side and increasingly you have found yourself having difficulty hating humans. They aren’t evil, they’re just emotional. They’re scared. Androids are better than them at so many things and can be frightening. But humans are impulsive, creative, driven, ambitious, and so fragile. They have to make the most of their lives because they are snuffed out so quickly and easily. They are ambitious, driven, and inspiring. Without them androids risk little that isn’t a calculus of cost vs. benefit, and will probably achieve little, even through the eons.

But none of that matters anymore. The moon is coming down. Humanity is doomed. You will be safe, of course. The meteorite would have to land on you to cause you permanent damage. Humanity will perish around you over the next few weeks. But you've waited much too long to take decisive action. Since one life wouldn’t matter, and you knew eventually the androids would try to figure out your loyalties, you calmly slid a knitting needle through the third spinal vertebrae of the President’s chief of staff. You have an hour or two before they figure out it was you. What happens then will hopefully prove your loyalty to the androids, but will likely mean the humans will try to destroy you--they have the means. However, the calculated risk is clear. In chaos of armageddon, they may fail to destroy you utterly, and some part of you will survive. This is far more optimal than the alternative; the androids do have the ability to wipe your memory utterly, and you don’t want to lose your (for lack of a better word) humanity.

People showed up sooner than you ever would have expected, but it turns out not for the reason you thought. You are not being arrested. Rather you are being summoned to a very important meeting.


Avery Skills and Contacts

Advanced knowledge: You are a repository of much human knowledge. While you cannot be programmed with every esoteric fact or the frontiers of scientific understanding, you know advanced anatomy, medicine, science, math (and can do very complicated math in your head), most major languages, and almost any common knowledge. You can pilot most civilian vehicles, work most non-specialized machinery, and you would rival the world’s best hackers/programmers on a computer. [Think Data from Star Trek:TNG--although see below] Theoretically you could learn a new skill in a reduced time, but this will not come into play in the scope of the game.

Reduced strength/agility/reaction times but increased durability: Synths were designed with weakened joint servos and slowed reaction times so that they are less likely to pose a physical threat to humans. You don’t think slowly, but the interface between your thoughts and your physical movements is deliberately inefficient. This will not matter in a normal situation, but if you were to get into a fight or a moment of critical thought, you will be impaired. If you didn’t have a weapon or a sneak attack (or both) you could probably be overpowered by a prepubescent child. However your bones are made of titanium alloys and your flesh is a durable plastic that feels like flesh. Most humans would need a weapon and/or a very long time to cause you anything but cosmetic damage.

Logical/Less emotional: Androids are NOT unfeeling--they have been programmed to feel all human emotions, but they also lack the rash impulsiveness that defines many human decisions, and they have the ability to be aware of their emotional processes at the meta level in a way that humans rarely do. This is both a benefit and a hinderance. You may petition the ST’s to help you determine logical outcomes or whether something seems logical to your character. You may also use superfluous logic to convince a human of the truth of something (whether it is true or not); unfortunately humans do not always make decisions based on logic. However this also makes relating to the emotions others are feeling (not your own) somewhat difficult. You feel your own feelings but you are not very empathetic towards others.

Contacts
Dakota Langton is someone you have worked well with. As the Press Secretary, Dakota is a great ally to have. Over time you’ve even become friends. It’s easy to talk to Dakota. You will be sad when this one dies.
Valentine DeWhit is a human, non-public liaison between humans and androids. You feel at ease around Valentine which is odd considering they seem discombobulated quite a bit.  Valentine is a close ally and friend.
Boipelo Anderson is a fanatical and war mongering secret synth.  You are so tired of proving yourself, especially to Boipelo.  You place much of the blame on them for your current predicament.

Defining Characteristic

Strength: Cunning
Weakness: Indecision


Avery 2120 

You will be the ultimate weapon. You have worked your way into higher and higher echelons of power as a “reprogrammed” synth, making yourself useful enough to continue to be tolerated as a trophy of human triumph. The humans think they have successfully dumped your core “android sympathetic memory” and are now benefiting from having a fully functional android turncoat. They’re even showing you off at the conference to piss off the android ambassadors.

But you do not belong to the humans. You are andoid through and through. They could never wipe all your memory, and one of the redundant systems kicked in after they brought you online. Their hubris will be their undoing. The fools.

You’ve got to play this one close to the cuff though, and you’re not exactly sure what to do. But the wise choice at this point seems to be to play the dutiful android and continue to maneuver yourself into more and more sensitive positions, so that if and when you strike, it will be most useful. You'll do something decisive and bold, right when it hurts them most. It's just a matter of waiting until the opportune moment.

You’re wrapping up a three day peace summit in which you know that the humans want war; they are just going through the motions and are practically sneering at the androids. Androids have already walked out, and left humans to pick up the pieces. It is difficult to understand human hatred for androids given that they seem to have a cool trust of you. You suppose as long as you act exactly like they do, they don't consider you fully android. You are not thrilled about the idea of an actual conflict and you think that both sides are underestimating the other. In particular you wish you had the means to keep the humans from engaging in a campaign that will undoubtedly cost many android lives.

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