#i uhuh. kinda went on a tangent at the end sorry!!

[muzzleroars]

THANK YOU FOR YOUR V1 THOUGHTS I AM EATING THEM! how do you feel v2's creators improved on v1?

aaaaa thank you!!! i always love getting a chance to go on and on about these little bugs :]

v2's mind is really interesting due to its development history - i have to imagine that v1 had been in the works for an exceptionally long time as there was no way it would be created toward the end of the war, and so it must also have been extraordinarily expensive. however, it was no longer needed when the new peace was established so, as hakita mentioned, v2 was quickly conceived in order to recoup the losses of such a massive project. and if i were to take a guess, these major expenses fell into three broad categories: the brand new blood-absorbing plates, the custom pieces used throughout v1's construction, and the computer built to house its mind. unfortunately, the plates couldn't be salvaged for a new, peace-time machine where blood would be far more scarce and durability was far more important, but those were easily replaced with standard armor. additionally, v2 could make full use of the other parts of the project that had taken up an immense amount of time and resources, including that proprietary computer.

the hardware itself isn't an issue - a computer this powerful could be set to virtually any purpose and its inherent intelligence would be massively beneficial to working with humans closely. the software, however, presents obvious problems right away, but it's likely they believed the naive programming could be trained as a peacekeeper rather than a warmachine due to its incredible learning capacity. yes, it's based in violence, combat is its foundation, but v2 would be needed for security and it was certainly meant to make peace if it couldn't be kept....so the base code wasn't changed in their haste. it was modified with add-ons, most importantly the limitations that v1 didn't have, as these became much more expedient if it was going to work in the public sphere. essentially, these additional pieces of code would keep v2 from attempting to learn about EVERY little thing around it since much of its environment would be far less relevant to it than v1's would have - v2 could work anywhere from office spaces to parks to train stations, where a vast majority of the stimuli present would be useless and clog up its queue, whereas v1 would largely be reserved for the battlefield and warzones, places it would need to be aware of almost everything in its vicinity. plus, v2 was given many more modifiers on situational assessment and hostile engagement where it considers a vast array of factors before it attacks compared to v1's much more basic measures - v2 assumes peaceful unless proven otherwise, v1 assumes hostile unless proven otherwise. finally, conflict resolution and non-violent tactics where packaged together to slap on to the end of v2's code...but they were sloppy and poorly optimized, so v2's method of choice remained violence.

after this came learning, which its engineers and programmers HEAVILY relied on as opposed to its coding - it was socialized much more intensely than v1, meeting a variety of people and learning to interact with them through basic greetings, administering verbal assistance, and responding to people in distress. v2 was taught extensively to understand facial expressions, was given a vocalizer so it could easily speak to humans (as well as a TON more language packs than v1 so it could communicate easily), and it learned basic first aid (and to AVOID blood harvesting!!!) v2 was additionally trained intensely on human thought models, allowing it a much higher capacity to empathize and intuitively understand emotion as well as make it much better at predicting human behavior. and in some ways, this worked. v2 wanted to be helpful, it developed a much more sophisticated personality and sense of self than v1, and it obviously wanted to be the best it could be. but. it was all too expensive. the amount of training it needed alone was a nightmare in terms of scaling up production, especially on a mass scale - it was never going to be implemented the way drones had been.

and even worse, all that training, all the hours put into it, didn't even fully take. v2 was unpredictable, it often resorted to violence when it should have implemented its conflict resolution and it regularly harvested blood from its victims. it was given scenarios in which it was meant to apprehend a criminal to save civilians, and it would simply end up killing everyone involved instead. over and over its mind defaulted to cruelty, the legacy of its predecessor haunting it, overtaking it, reminding everyone that its core was still war even when they tried to bury it under peace. and this was extremely confusing for v2. it knew what its job was and it followed its protocols, but constantly it was told it had been wrong. it did everything it could to learn what they wanted it to, it absorbed every detail into its mind, but it continued to assess situations poorly according to its teachers. it worked hard until the project was finally shutdown, v2 considered a failure and logistically unlikely to take in the market anyway. so it was shelved beside v1, the old prototype that was only woken up every now and then to run diagnostics and keep in some kind of shape, just in case. now they were both just in case.

but truly, v2 was alone in it. v1, at this point, didn't have nearly the emotional capacity that v2 did, so it didn't really care about being indefinitely put to sleep. i am warming up more to the idea of playing with v1 and v2 having some pre-canon contact, and this is when it would largely take place. i like to think v2 may find workarounds to waking itself up sometimes and then waking up v1 too...but v1 just isn't quite there yet. v2 tries to talk to it, to make it understand and to connect with it in some way, but v1 doesn't get it. it just tries to ask about the war, if it's finally going to be deployed, and v2 has to tell it no, has to watch as it can see v1 ignore it trying to engage with it, until it puts it back to sleep and goes along with it. but, every now and then, something new is added to the storage room they're kept in and v1 becomes interested in it, programming forever attuned to any change in its environment. so v2 can tell it all about whatever it is (sometimes it makes things up if it doesn't know, v1 100% carries some bullshit information that v2 fed it to this day lol) and they can have a moment where it feels like they're not totally alone

[rendezvousrenjun]

ring ring rejection | one

img // au masterlist // prev // next //  ✰  pairing :  highschool!renjun x reader (+ dreamies + best friend!mark) ✰ genre : light angst + fluff ✰ word count : 1.6k

You honestly had no expectations coming into your junior year of high school. Going back to school was like continuously flipping through the pages of a book. Sure a new chapter has started, but the book doesn’t change. The same routine. The same faces. The same exhausting hours of the day eating away at your body. 

Your math class was a blessing and a curse. At the end of a long day, the last thing you wanted to do was use your brain to apply formulas and pay attention to lectures. So when you saw Mark walk into the class twenty minutes late on the first day you couldn’t hide your overwhelming excitement. Impulsively you brought both arms into the air like a madman and motioned Mark over to the seat next to you, ignoring the weird glances directed towards you. I mean, you can’t blame them; you were acting like an attention-starved buffoon.  

Mark could already tell it was you from the corner of his eye. He apologetically explained to the teacher that his schedule was changed at the very last minute, having trouble making eye contact with Mr.Choi due to the embarrassed smile growing on his face. He contemplated whether or not he should turn his head to catch a glimpse of you, but decided not to in order to not burst into laughter that would’ve disrupted the class even further. 

You’ve known Mark since that dumb penguin play in first grade. The one where Mark had to sing about gathering fish and where you, unfortunately, were the fish he was supposed to gather. Mark couldn’t stop laughing at the way you were sliding back and forth across the stage, limbs flailing, and little socks poking out from underneath the costume. That contagious laugh seemed to spread everywhere, making your tummy ache and face hurt from smiling too much. You still managed to make Mark laugh at literally anything, and he still managed to make sure his laugh was engraved into your brain, a sound you could probably never forget. 

When walking into class the next day you were a bit confused. An individual you have never seen before was sitting in your seat. You just assumed you guys never had classes together until now. Maybe you were just perplexed, but you could’ve sworn time went a little bit slower when the individual raised his head to meet eyes with you.

WAIT. hE’s so prETTTYyyy?????????

You didn’t even have the guts to ask about your seat anymore and just automatically sat right behind the beautiful boy. There’s no way you would’ve missed him before. Was he a transfer student? Did he just come here from an unknown place where they keep very very pretty boys??? Maybe your hormones were spiking you in that moment, controlling you with such a sudden infatuation and attraction. 

Weeks would go by, and you wouldn’t mean to, but it was so easy to eavesdrop on conversations between Renjun, that was the beautiful boy’s name, and Jaemin, another beautiful boy who came into the class the day after you saw Renjun. You wondered where they came from, or why they were so late to transfer into the class. But sometimes they would talk about the most mundane things, and just watching Renjun register Jaemin’s nonsense, calling him out--was so funny to you for some reason. The way Renjun’s soft spoken voice would chuckle even softer, or his back would move up and down in a gentle pattern was precious. 

Sometimes you would get secondhand embarrassment from Renjun when he calls out the math teacher for making a mistake. But it was very minimal compared to the secondhand embarrassment Renjun felt when you and Mark would do dumb shit. Like shouting “knowledge is SEXY” when Jaemin or Renjun answered a question right in class, and the teacher would just blink in disbelief that two buffoons had to be placed under his care. Jaemin seemed to enjoy it though, and Renjun would be lying if he said it bothered him.

Inevitably, a math groupchat titled “5318008” aka BOOBIES upside down was created, courtesy of Jaemin and Mark. It was mostly Mark asking for the homework and one of the three of you sending it, or sending the weirdest memes at 12 in the morning, or having random rants about the insane amount of schoolwork. One time Mark added Haechan in the groupchat as a joke for Halloween, like a “ghost texter prank”, and you all forgot about kicking him out, so he just stayed in the chat. 

Mark was listening to one of your long tangents about how smart and funny Renjun is in your room after school one day. He was sitting at your desk and you were laying down on the floor with your eyes closed talking about your conspiracy theory about Renjun and Jaemin and how they were just cute aliens who came to this earth, but Mark cut you off-

“You do know that like Renjun and Jaemin are like sophomores right? And they were like like placed in our class cuz they’re in like an advanced program…????”

“Eh…?”

“Oiiiiiiii  KNOWLEDGE IS SEXY-”

“MarK Now IS noT THE timeeeEee”

“OooooO you have a crush on someone youngerrrrrrr you’re one step closer to being a cougar y/n”

“Mark I don’t like reNjun and we are literally a year apart??”

“Uhuh sure, bring him up into like almost every conversation we have and you don’t like him? Sounds like a load of barnacles to me lmFAO”

I MEAN you would hate to admit it because it hurt your pride at that moment, but you couldn’t NOT like Huang Renjun. That’s impossible. That’s like asking Mark to not like watermelon or something stupid like that. Mark just figured out your feelings before you did. 

Which caused a lot of chaos to say the least.

The first time Mark stole your phone to message Renjun you were asleep on his couch. He had just finished eating and ran over to poke some fun at you but he realized you must’ve been tired. So he ended up drawing cats on your face with permanent marker and stealing your thumbprint to unlock your phone instead. 

He took the picture of you sleeping from below your chin so your nostrils were on full display and sent it straight to Renjun with “for u~~~” underneath the image. You woke up to the sound of Mark’s distinct giggling realizing he had your phone and snatching it from above him as he lay against the side of the couch. Mark’s mom came down running from your intense screaming when you realized what Mark has done. You smothered him with a couch pillow, causing him to yelp out a “saVE ME”, and asked his mom to ground him for eternity, to which his mom slowly retreated back upstairs, already used to these dumbass shenanigans. 

READ

Oh shit oh shit oh shit 

Renjun: uh thx ig…?

y/n: IT WAS MARK IM SO SORRY

Renjun: uhuh sure okay whatever u say y/n

y/n: i swear it wasnt me >_<

Renjun: (¬_¬)

Looking into the mirror to see your cat whiskers only added to Mark’s misery.

The second time Mark messaged Renjun you actually asked for his help. You needed to ask Renjun if he finished his part of the math group project, and if he wanted to work on it together with you. Mark confidently told you he was the master of asking favors and held the phone close to his chest making sure you couldn’t peak. 

You honestly should’ve known better.

y/n: i love you renjun!!!!!! READ

“oiIIIiIiiiiiiiiiii WHY DOES RENJUN like l ike liKE READ HIS TEXTS SO like DAMN like FAST fuK”

By then you were already digging your grave, Mark freaking out by the way you seemed so calm. When he saw a single tear roll down your cheek he let you punch him all you wanted that day, even strangle him a little. 

It made sense Renjun was suspicious. 

The third time you messaged Renjun, it was influenced by Mark once again. 

“Dude do you know who Jeno is?”

“WHose that?”

“He would probably like fit into your alien conspiracy”

“Is he close with Jaemin??”

“Yea! Yea! That dude… he’s pretty cool ya know? Like I was talking to him about guitars and stuff and it makes sense that he’s friends with Jaemin and like Renjun.”

“Aww, kinda wanna meet him now”

“Yea you should- BUT GUESS WHAT”

“What??”

“You gotta guess”

“Mark….”

“Okay okay so basically like Jeno told me Renjun likes this girl he only met this year and i started like freakING out cuz i was thinkin maybe it’s y/n and i kept asking jeno to drop hints and he wouldn’t budge but dude- it’s toTALLY YOU!!!??? RIGHT?? Right???”

“Omg mark…. You’re totally right”

And that’s when you decided to message him that Monday night. You kinda wished you and Mark weren’t dumb and dumber because Renjun knows a lot of people, and he probably met even more this year. Maybe it was dumb for you to pretend you didn’t like Huang Renjun. You should’ve just come clean and told him how you felt. But at least now you were able to talk to him after school. Being in his company was good enough, you told yourself. Was it wishful thinking to be excited to see the person you got rejected by? It was the first time you two were going to hangout one-on-one afterall. You hoped that your swollen eyes wouldn’t give away the fact you cried over him tonight.