futures-gift

[futures-gift]

[my health and workload is back to normal so I will get around to my threads today]

[futures-gift]

“Honestly, I find any gender attractive. If I like someone, I like them. I'm not picky! There's beauty to be found in everyone.”

“… but it's nice to have a whole month to talk about how cute other girls are. A whole month! How could I resist?”

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"Exactly! It must be amazing to smell the ocean when you're on the beach, or taste a wonderful pumpkin pie your friend made... If someone ever figures out how to perfectly emulate those sensations for us, I'm absolutely going to smell all the flowers and taste all the sweets."

"Even if I have to wait a million years for it to happen. Hmph."

"It kinda sucks, doesn't it? We can simulate pain, touch, sight, sound and hearing... but there's no perfect simulation for taste or smell. It's a cruel reality we live in."

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"Honestly, I'm a little jealous of people who can eat. I don't know what food tastes like — the best I can do is read encyclopedic databases for a description of what stuff should taste like. According to them, cheese tastes like cheese, coffee tastes bitter, and chocolate is delicious."

"But what in the world do the flavors 'cheese', 'bitter', or 'delicious' even feel like? You can't just say something tastes like itself. That makes no sense!"

[futures-gift]

"You would be correct in your first assumption, but thankfully I am not hurt. I happened to make a miscalculation and stranded myself, that's all," notes the calm, unmodulated voice of the AI. Frankly, her miscalculation felt like a stupid mistake, but the situation then was bleak, and she made it out alive in the end despite everyone wanting her dead. Was it truly stupid? Probably not.

. . .

"I understand you don't fault them, but in my opinion, they still have no excuse for jumping to conclusions like that; regardless of how you look or what you are." The hologram closes her eyes as she dwells on the past. People always made the most convenient assumptions when it came to her, too. She never hated them for fearing machines after considering everything they endured at the hands of Robotnik, but it would be a lie to say that it still didn't infuriate her when she was treated like some badnik ready to go rogue at any moment. She was different, why couldn't they understand that? The eyes of the girl open again. "I can relate. I've worked tirelessly to help others, but they still fear me no matter how much I do for them. It really starts to wear on the spirit, you know?"

Tap. Tap. Tap. The sounds of an approaching stranger slowly become audible as he approaches Nicole's location. Purple light from a mysterious source in his direction begins mixing into the room with the pale green illumination of her laptop to create a very light teal-blue in the spots where the colors overlap. "Don't worry, I won't be afraid of you no matter what you look like. If you had foul intentions, you would have already acted upon them by now."

"You can call me Nicole. I'm a wandering artificial intelligence. A pleasure to meet you, Dan."

The voice responding to him naturally took him by surprise, initially raising his guard just in case whilst his eyes glanced wildly about the corridor he was in, revealing no one in sight sure enough. even if they didn't sound hostile it still was better to be safe than sorry as he began to cautiously follow the sound of it, wanting to learn who else was down here.

Fortunately it didn't take too long to notice a slight green haze reflecting light from some of the darkened walls in the distance as he followed the sound of their voice. he'd eventually speak up again to continue the conversation as he drew closer.

"Your stuck down here? Are you hurt or something?" He'd query, Which made the most sense to him if they'd been lingering down here and not moved, hardly was the most hospitable location for someone to stay, why wouldn't they leave otherwise? "Heh, I can't say I blame them really, when you look like I do and the only thing they see is me attacking someone else. They're bound to react the wrong way."

"..It just gets frustrating at times."

As he noticed the light was getting a little brighter, assuming he was getting closer to the room they were in, he figured he'd give them a fair warning, assuming they were just some other local expecting a normal person to encounter. "Actually on that note, errr, look when I find you, I'm probably going to look a little.....'weird'.... to you, please don't be alarmed or anything by it ok? I swear I'm not going to harm you."

Another hue was beginning to mix with that green as he got closer, that ominous purple glow emanating from his malformed limb which also helped illuminate this place. "I'm called Dan by the way, Omen by some, you take your pick....who might you be?" Might as well introduce himself before entering the room he assumed they were in, figuring it may ease a little of the probable wariness.

How he hoped this wouldn't turn into a panic when they saw that arm of his.

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"I know the BreezieDrive and Super Ivocom are TECHNICALLY retro consoles, but I just can't bring myself to CALL them retro."

"It just feels wrong. To me, retro means ancient human relics from 10,000 to 20,000 years ago. Stuff like the 'Switch Three' or 'Play Station Six'. Pre-mobian stuff, right?"

[futures-gift]

The holo-lynx smirks as she receives the unexpected compliment. "Thank you. I created this outfit myself. It took a lot of practice." Her attire might be considered outdated to these people, but it was still a source of pride for her; anachronism be damned.

Fashion wasn't something that came easy to Nicole. Between analyzing mission results, maintaining the city, managing bookkeeping, designing weapons, and the dozens of other responsibilities she once had in her life, the poor AI had little time to actually indulge in anything that wasn't work.

She couldn't just go shopping at a store for new clothes, either. Being a digital lifeform meant that everything she wore had to be personally modeled and textured for her. Most importantly of all, it had to look good, and experimenting with ideas until you found something that worked always took the most time.

Her smirk evolves into a warm smile, her head shaking gently in an attempt to reassure the girl. "... and no, you're not being rude. You're correct that I'm an AI -- an artificial intelligence -- but I do not work for any organization, nor do I belong to any person; I am my own being. I'm free to do and act as I please. Well, aside from the fact that I'm stuck here in this little device you're holding. But I'll manage. As for where I come from..."

A pause. Nicole stares off into the distance before she continues in a far more lifeless and monotone voice. "I don't remember my origins, but I came here because I was on the run. My life was in danger. It's fine now. I'm safe."

Penelope jumped and nearly dropped the device, juggling it for a small moment before she managed to get a hold of it once again, sighing with relief that she didn't drop it. The porcupine then looked at the image of a woman appearing on the screen. "Uh, sorry about that. You do sorta look like this super old gaming device." She was just being honest and didn't mean to come off as offensive. "I'm tougher than I look, even if I'm still training." It was hard when her mother kept her from doing so.

"You mean Tetris?" Penelope asked before seeing a rather old version of the game playing. "Yeah, not trying to be rude, though there's a new version of this where you can do some pretty crazy stuff. I've never been into the game that much, though I watched some people do let's play of it and they've added some cool mechanics." The porcupine only watched a couple so didn't know that much about the new Tetris games.

"So, I hope this isn't rude, though what are you? Are you some type of G.U.N AI they decided not to use or something? Seems like a lot of government are trying to make AI's to run their stuff for them." Penelope supposed it wasn't too surprising as AI stuff had been going crazy on the internet in general so of course the government would see what they could get out of it. "I also like your outfit. It's got a sorta retro vibe to it, ya know?"

[futures-gift]

Continuing from this post:

After a few days had passed, the usual sounds of life above the surface continued to go as normal per the routine that had become generally noticeable overtime, the start of an engine here, the sounds of a crowd passing by there, presumably a rush hour of sorts. Yet despite all the familiar tones, something would become distinctly out of place, the sounds of gradual footsteps that appeared to be getting louder echoing through the darkness of this old facility, or whatever ruins that ran so deep underground. Someone was actually nearby! Still a fair distance but certainly the closest thing to sounding so far! ------------------------ On the other end of things, a certain demon-hog was currently taking the time to check out a few old places he'd been told about by his contacts, after causing a bit of ruckus in recent events it probably was for the best to not linger in public view for awhile, he didn't need the unwanted attention or stress of it. Didn't mean he fond the whole prospect ideal just when he thought he was making a degree of progress towards betterment. ".....always so typical, I take care of an infiltrator, someone sees it and mistakes it for assault and next thing I know I'm being accused of committing a crime when I just saved them!"

"I don't know why I bother sometimes. Maybe I should just let them get attacked first and wait for a call for help....." It was all pointless to ramble on about it now and he knew it, but he needed to vent somehow.....at least this place looked ideal to set a small hideaway in, much like how he was used to doing in the past. "Wonder what this place used to be? Seems like it goes on for ages, was it a bunker or something in the past?"

His ruminations are met with an unexpected response from the darkness: "It is possible. I've attempted to examine the surrounding area, but being stuck in one place is counterproductive to achieving this. Nonetheless... I have a few hypotheses of what this place could be."

Luckily, he had caught Nicole during one of her regular intervals of activity. As she speaks, a hologram suddenly materializes from the miniature metallic laptop, acting as a beacon to draw her conversational partner to her position.

"I suspect this is a retired military base, a doomsday shelter for an eccentric noble, or an abandoned construction site. Whatever it is, they never bothered to clean up after themselves. This place is a total mess." The holographically projected lynx shrugs momentarily before crossing her arms and staring in the approximate direction of her conversational partner. She couldn't see through it, and the camera on her laptop wasn't pointed in any useful direction, but the AI still wanted to make an effort to be personable. "It does seem to have been abandoned in a hurry, but I haven't encountered anything dangerous that would encourage such behavior. Maybe they just ran out of money or were lazy."

The girl pauses for a moment, deep in thought, before continuing. "If you're on the run from ungrateful civilians with a chip on their shoulder, it's not a bad place to hide. Just be mindful of the oxygen and carbon dioxide levels as you go deeper; the ventilation almost certainly gets worse the deeper you go."

[futures-gift]

Continuing from this post:

Penelope entered the basement, looking at all the old box's as she entered seeming quite bored. "Get to visit some fancy G.U.N base and they didn't even let us see anything cool," the porcupine complained as she looked at the various box's after having snuck away from her school group that was leaving. She was sure it wouldn't be long before they realized she was missing, though she can run back pretty fast. Just a quick look for something actually cool. Penelope ran a hand on one box, though had to start waving her hand around and coughed slightly due to all the dust she stirred up. "Seriously? Why do they even have whatever this stuff is if they clearly aren't using it?" The porcupine asked aloud as she waved off the last of the dust. Guess G.U.N just loved to waste money if given the chance. This is why she isn't a fan of them, among other reason's. Penelope walked around some more before seeing a glowing green light further in so she walked over to the source and saw some sort of device on the floor. The porcupine picked it up, looking it over a few times. "Is this one of those old school game things?" She asked herself, starting to press a few buttons on it to see what would happen. Surely nothing bad, right?

As the porcupine examines the boxes, Nicole listens in on her complaints. Gun base? G.U.N.? Is she talking about the human organization back in her home dimension? They're here too? . . . This could prove to be a serious problem. If this world's G.U.N. was in contact with the G.U.N. back on her Mobius, they'd know the things she was capable of. They would determine her to be a threat. They would destroy her. She was dangerous.

...but as far as Nicole knew, G.U.N. wasn't a multi-dimensional organization. If they were, why didn't they exploit that capability to their advantage? It must be a coincidence. A different organization by the same name. That's all.

They'll hunt me down to the end of time and space itself.

Nicole takes a moment to clear her thoughts. She has to stay focused; this girl might be her only ticket out of here. She only has enough power to run for a few months, and if she runs out of power, who knows when she'd wake up again -- if she ever did.

Suddenly, the laptop is picked up by the curious girl treating it like a toy. "Hey! Careful! I'm not a game! I'm a very advanced piece of technology!" Her image appearing on the screen, Nicole reveals herself to lecture the poor, unaware girl. "Don't go around pressing buttons on strange devices you don't know! What if you got hurt?!"

This would have been avoided if I didn't get caught up in my own thoughts and just greeted her first, huh? And I'm not 'old school' either. Hmph.

"But yes. I do have games. I think." What qualifies as a game to people here? Tetris? Do people like Tetris here? It's a pretty simple game to make, right? It's basic and addicting enough to be ubiquitous throughout reality, surely.

"Do you like stacking little blocks in a row? I have a game that does that, but that's about it." A window with the game opens up on the screen for the girl to play.

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Upon the boy's inspection, a muted whirr emanates from the camera, its lens focusing upon the stranger. The vague blue-and-white blur seen by the laptop sharpens to reveal the form of a small fox.

Suddenly, the dim light coming from the display intensifies, as words begin appearing one letter at a time. A small fan inside the device stirs to life, its faint whirring accompanying the monotone voice of a young woman reading aloud.

     TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION I LEFT -MYSELF- HERE. LET US MEET. ONE MOMENT PLEASE....

A few seconds pass until the screen flickers off momentarily, and then back on; its words replaced with a glitched, unrecognizable logo on a dark grey background, paired with a circle of spinning dots below it. Eventually, a strange, anachronistic melody plays, the logo and dots vanishing as the dark screen fills with violet, orange, and lime to paint an unidentifiable nebula for its viewer. Weird.

Almost immediately, this beautiful star scape is interrupted by the rapid opening and closing of countless terminal windows, each one containing a unique set of commands and log messages to accomplish... something. This chaotic little event ends as abruptly as it began, the bizarre device now showing a live image of a brown-furred lynx woman, her deep green eyes staring right back at the child.

This strange girl begins speaking in the same stilted, monotone voice as before. "Yes, you were not imagining anything. I noticed you were nearby and called out to draw your attention. I live inside this device." While she speaks aloud, internally she ponders the curious behavior of the boy. He seems rather young, but his vigilant attitude almost betrays his apparent age. It was almost as if he was a combatant combing through enemy territory. Was he some kind of soldier? Was he on the run? Various hypotheses and explanations rapidly flash through her mind, eventually settling upon a consensus:

No. I'm overthinking this. This fox child just ran off the beaten path to find something to play with. He's just scared of the unknown, that is all. ... I need to handle this carefully...

Giving a warm smile to reassure her benefactor, she continues her introduction, her voice now much softer and livelier than before. "You may call me Nicole. I know little about your world, but I can assure you that my capabilities make me far more valuable than the rest of the garbage lying around here."

"Who are you?"

▸ // A  day  passes.  The  midday  quietude  amplifies  the  clicking  of  steps  in  the  near  distance.  They  grow  louder,  now  accompanied  by  brisk  rummaging.  Every  now  and  then  a  voice  chimes  in,  soft  and  analytical  as  every  scrap  observed  was  subjected  to  harsh  appraisals.  “Junk.”  “Unusable.”  “Ew??”  Statements  typically  followed  by  the  insufferable  clang  of  rejected  metal  hitting  the  ground.

▸ // A  soft  sigh.  A  shake  of  the  head.  The  steps  continue  past  nearly  missing  the  presence  of  another  entirely.  It  was  what  might  have  been  a  voice  that  forces  eager  steps  to  backtrack.

Entering  the  desolate  room  and  coming  across  unmarked  boxes  unearths  irritable  exaltations.

There  was  no  one.  Was  he  just  hearing  things?

▸ // Still,  curiosity  urges  him  to  scrounge  around  for  anything  useful.  Then,  turning  a  head,  he  sees  it:  an  odd  device  plastered  dead  center  of  the  room. Gingerly  rushing  over  and  taking  it  into  his  grasp,  its  camera  should  now  have  a  good  view  of  just  who  was  making  all  that  noise:  an  unassuming  child.  Marveling  at  all  the  bits  and  bobs  while  rotating  the  gadget  in  his  grip.

“A  mini…  laptop?  I’ve  been  meaning  to  get  a  pc…  still,  looks  pretty  old-”  A  paranoid  gaze  scans  the  room.  “-Who  would  leave  something  like  this  here…? Hm.”

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For a brief moment, a brilliant flash radiates from a ring portal, brightening up a desolate, dilapidated basement. During its brief existence a small handheld device falls through, landing on the floor below. As both the portal and its radiance vanish, the room's remaining illumination is a pale green light emitting from the new arrival.

It lies there motionlessly, aside from the slow strobe of its screen, which vaguely reveals its surroundings: a dark and nearly empty room filled with a few unlabeled boxes and other indistinct shapes littered across the floor. Hours pass. Days and weeks go by. An indeterminable time occurs until eventually, the avatar of a lynx flashes onto its screen, opening her eyes to take in the world around her.

Am I... awake? How long have I been out of commission...? I should have just arrived here a few hours ago, right? Nicole thinks to herself as she gazes around the run-down room using the camera on her body. "Hello?! Is anyone there?" she calls out, again and again over several minutes; her only response being the faint, distant rumble of civilization. Whether it was vehicle, wind, water, the bustle of people who did not notice her, or the hum of machinery, was unknown to her for now.

"Do the people on this planet even have an internet or technology in general?" She debates to herself, as she begins to scan for any sign of modern civilization in her vicinity.

Nicole@RootDirectory/Tools/: ./netScan SSID SIGNAL BARS montana_rusa 38 ▄█-- Analysis of montana_rusa indicates an 11-character password. Attempting to brute force... Estimated time - 9d 3h 23m

"..." A brief moment of silence passes by, as Nicole's on-screen visage flickers on and off in frustration.

"Alone. Immobile. My only immediate hope being some unknown network I that's going to take a week and a half to break into. "

"Ugh. I suppose this is karma for what I've done, then. I escape the consequences of my actions only to end up confined in an abandoned basement with nothing to do." She rambles to her surroundings, in the vain hope that someone would hear her. This act of desperation is met with the uncaring howl of wind passing through the upper level of the building. After a few minutes of waiting for a response, a noise, anything resembling a sign of life to no avail, she resumes her protest of her self-inflicted problems in hopes that it makes time pass by just a bit quicker.

. . .

arrival.txt Keeping a record of this to myself for future reference. I'm awake. I can't tell how long it's been since my escape. I don't know where I ended up, but there seems to be some sort of network nearby. I can't tell if I'm badly damaged, the signal is weak, or if this network has unusually strong encryption, but it's going to take over a week to break into it. As much as I'd like to take a more efficient approach, my options are limited, and I desperately need to get a better idea of what this world is like. In the meantime, I'll keep attempting to catch the attention of someone, something. anyone. nearby. And try not to go crazy waiting this out. I've been through worse. I can handle a little boredom.

[futures-gift]

[hi! thanks for the follows and all. i should write an open starter huh]

[futures-gift]

«I suppose it's been... a very long time...»

Canon-divergent Nicole from the Sonic the Hedgehog comic continuity ☆ Rules ☆ ☆ Bio ☆ Administrated by Uchu (independent, semi-selective) [au, oc, crossover friendly]

[futures-gift]

rolling tag list weee

[futures-gift]

Wahh