2020-12-31: Rachiel's Orders
- Log: Rachiel's Orders
- Cast: Lydia Seren, Azoth
- Where: Etrenank
- Date: December 31, 2020
- Summary: Azoth pays a visit to Rachiel Medry, trying to figure out why she didn't report his erratic behavior to his handlers.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Rachiel Medry is presently stationed in a base at Southern Aquvy, presently unnamed because when I asked tragedienne just now she said the details haven't been entirely worked out yet, often finds herself put somewhere out of the way so the average officer doesn't stumble upon whatever weird Krelian-adjacent work she happens to be working on but also kind of to put her out of the way because she's inconveniently outspoken and honest and frankly a bit of a klutz so they kind of just want her out of the way unless a major operation involving her charge happens to be going on. The reason she got this job is because despite her impressive scores--her temperment was a frequent weakness in her personel profile. Azoth is going to have to go down several flights of stair and past an actual leaking ceiling that passes underneath the bathroom to make it to Rachiel's 'office'.
Rachiel's 'office' is dimly lit and frankly looks more like a terminal room rather than a work station. Several monitors, most of them offline, are scattered about and one, plugged in, is seated at the side. Several windows are tabbed down including one labeled 'Baphomet' but the main window up is a small time waster puzzle game akin to minesweeper. And Rachiel's head is resting on the keyboard and she's clearly sleeping, her glasses dislodged by the keyboard partially--and a little bit of drool dribbles out of her mouth onto her spacebar. A half eaten rationbar is to the side next to the keyboard and a mug of cold coffee is next to that.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
An automaton electing to perform such a behavior may be considered strange, and though Azoth intended to claim she requested a report, it seems that Azoth needn't have worried about any cover stories within the relative isolation she's kept in. He is beginning to understand Lydia's assessments.
But as Lydia said, there's judgments he's still got to make for himself. Rachiel, simply by virtue of being a human within Solaris, holds power over Azoth. That makes her dangerous.
...
Azoth looks upon the napping, drooling specimen of Very Real and Very Serious Danger working on Very Serious Dangerous Matters with an unblinking, blank face.
Carefully, he shifts the cup of coffee out of the way of any potential flailing.
Then he greets her by using his voice synthesizer to produce the sound of an alarm clock.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Rachiel jolts awake immediately, smacking her ration off the table with a wild flail as she quickly alt tabs back into Lydia's camera feed which presently shows, through Lydia's perspective, the nano-colony skipping rocks against the lake and occassionally scratching her butt.
"I'm awake'n'working...!" Rachiel says before blinking and slowly turning around in her chair to look at Azoth, glasses lying crookedly on her nose. She slowly pushes them back up with her index finger.
"...." She looks towards her watch. She looks back up at Azoth. "...Ah--hahaha....! Yep! Always working hard here." Rachiel says, smacking her table with her hand as she tries to find her coffee cup without looking back to the desk she's working on.
"I was just.... testing to see the keyboard worked."
"....Am I in trouble?"
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth catches the ration as it goes flying, but otherwise remains unmoving, unblinking, while he observes her transition into the waking world. It is possible he feels, maybe, a little, itty bit bad about this? Or is he enjoying the fragment of control he has? Mysteries.
Once she begins to settle, Azoth silences his alarm and puts the ration back down where it once was. He sets the coffee down, too, but his hand lingers while he heats his body, trying to instill at least some warmth back to her beverage before letting go.
His gaze slides to the camera feed, but his face still does not change. And when he speaks, it is, of course, in that robotic and stiff way he commits to while in Solarian company. Rachiel's seen the persona once, but he may have seen even more through Lydia's (or OS') eyes.
Yet he does not provide it here.
"This unit has received no command to administer punishment, User Rachiel," he says. "No direct user command directs this visitation. Requesting permission for inquiries related to the subject of the operation within the Zeboim vault."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Rachiel is...pretty sure she's seen Azoth speak more normal than this. Not even just through Lydia's eyes--whom she tries to keep hours with so she has both a consistent sleep schedule and so lydia has some privacy--but like in her own brief interations with Azoth. Her cheeks puff out because she's getting the feeling like she's being made fun of as she poutyfaces at Azoth with all her strength. She's so busy pouting, in fact, that she almost misses what Azoth is saying which is definitely an allegory that Rachiel should try to avoid being the subject of.
"...Oh! Sure. Ask away!" Rachiel beams. "I'm actually way more knowledgeable than I appear, ehehheh...." She doesn't want Azoth to think that she's actually kind of a schmuck so she tries to act like one of the cool operators she's seen in Solarian anime. "So what can I help you with?"
She finally finds her coffee, takes a sip, grimaces, and puts the cup far away from her.
"Must've been out for longer than I thought," Rachiel mumbles.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth regards the poutyface with stoic mastery, betraying none of how baffled he is internally. Where is the resolve for such powerful pouting coming from...!
"...If my style of communication does not suit your needs, you may command me to alter my operation to your preferences."
That offer might be a trap.
But it also isn't untrue.
When Rachiel abandons the coffee, Azoth picks it up again, giving a second try at reheating it.
"There are critical omissions concerning available information on the recent events within the Zeboim vault," he continues. "Inquiry: why?"
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Rachiel says, "Uh." When Azoth offers to let her decide how he talks. She scratches at her cheek lightly and says, "No thanks? Talk however you'd like I guess." She seems weirded out by the idea.
She stands up, swivels her chair around, and sits in it so the head of the chair is facing Azoth as she leans against it to look right at Azoth. She doesn't realize that Azoth is reheating the coffee and assumes he wants to drink it. "Oh I thought you couldn't drink." She says.
But Azoth gets to the point pretty quickly. He asks about omissions in her report.
"Oh!" Rachiel says. "Well..." She seems hesitant to go right out there and say it. She might not want to be the next 'Falk' here herself and has to weigh whether going on about it will leave her up to reprisal, but she ultimately determines that if Azoth knows about it, he could have already turned her in.
"...I guess... because I thought you would get in trouble if someone saw you acting like that. And that wouldn't have been right. It was clear you didn't want to do it and if they dug around in your head because of it, it'd probably happen more often--or could hurt your charming and cute personality. And that'd be terrible!"
She holds up an index finger. "And Lydie seems to really like you, so it wouldn't be good for her either!"
She cocks her head slightly to the left. "I'd say that's the most of it at least?"
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
However he'd like. Azoth does not have time to unpack the problems with asking him that right now.
"I cannot," Azoth confirms, concerning coffee. He doesn't clarify beyond that, simply holding it while it heats. It isn't efficient. It's going to take a moment.
Her explanation... It's... simple. It's too simple. It makes sense but it does not make sense for one of them to say it, like she's one of the soft Drifters he's met, so easily trusting and so eager to be useful.
Calculations are at war. What reason would she have to construct such a narrative? Genuinely believing he calculates favors into his decision making and wanting to play on that? When she can easily command him to do as she wished?
It would be a practical approach of anyone who did not trust the overrides completely. After his display in the ruins, who could blame her for that? If Azoth turned on Solaris due to an error, there could be casualties before they put and end to it.
But it doesn't sound like that, either.
"The 'charming' and 'cute' personality is a calculated performance that currently serves Solaris' needs," Azoth says. "...But it is not impossible continued adjustments of my programming would damage the processes necessary to maintain it."
He's silent for a few seconds, then: "It is also not impossible adjustments would lead to more efficient and stable operation. Evidence does not suggest what I 'want' to be of higher priority than the objectives I have been specifically reprogrammed to fulfill."
"...What is your objective, User Rachiel?"
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Rachiel removes her glasses, polishing them with a kerchief as she listens to Azoth describe himself, claiming that his personality--as has been expressed--has largely been a front. This revelation doesn't seem to perturb her--so far, ALARM CLOCK Azoth seems to have been the most perturbed she's been, with Azoth's comment that she could dictate how he talks as a close second.
She slides her glasses back onto her face after and looks to Azoth. "Well, considering their work so far, I'm not sure I'd be willing to flip that coin. It's a bit of a gamble, isn't it? And we aren't just gambling whether a gun would work or not, we'd be gambling the temperment of an advanced intellect from an era before Solaris existed in the hopes of, what, having a perfect slave? Maybe? And the price to make that bet would be OS's good will towards us? Considering they have already proven capable of augmenting their own intelligence and force of will, it doesn't seem very smart to me."
She pushes her glasses up her nose. They gleam in the darkness.
"Too many of my colleagues choose to take their pleasures in cruelty, taking it as a personal slight that there are people who aren't mindlessly devoted to the cause might or allow themselves some disatisfaction or aren't perfectly under someone's thumb, gleefully taking on the role of a cartoon villain."
She looks up at Azoth. "You think, Azoth, that because you are a machine that you are one of the few authorities on what it means to be a cog in Solaris's workings but you've met Juno, haven't you? He said that it was not a matter of earning power but of people being in their rightful place but everyone you've worked with here--including me, even including Leah--even the people treating you so roughly--have all felt the instruments of control pressed up against their necks. That is why they press it back down upon you. They emulate the people who have made them into cogs, and so they make you into a cog like man imitating god's creation of themselves."
"Did you know," Rachiel smiles, as if embarrassed. "That every almost every year there's someone who just snaps under the Gebler training program? They are pushed to take a drug to improve their performance--a drug that alters their brain chemistry--and they go wild. Sometimes they just snap under the pressure of extreme meritocracy."
She reaches to the side, collecting a sheathed blade. She draws the weapon out from its scabbard andd holds it aloft. "But some flexibility is needed to make a proper blade. So I think it's the same for a society. Why create a situation where everyone who is kind to our Azoth is outside of Solaris's purvivew? Are we going to bet everything that our control of him is so perfect that it is perfectly fine for us to treat him as a gun when that is clearly not his natural state? That doesn't make much sense to me either, Azoth. If we are going to claim ourselves to be 'shepherds' we should act like it, instead of biting at any surfacedweller or agent that doesn't immediately adhere perfectly to the organizational standards set out by Gebler which keeps killing its students."
She shrugs both shoulders. "I want to reform Solaris. It can be better. I admit, of course, that perhaps it is impossible to reform a power structure so eager to feed on itself... but I have no choice. This is where my family lives."
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Part of the problem is, Azoth does not even believe it to be any shocking revelation to anyone on Solaris. But this is where the errors in judgment come in. What Rachiel knows, or believes, to be true about Azoth does not seem to fit the foundation of Azoth has determined to be what the typical Solaris 'user' would be working off of.
He listens, not just to her words, but how she says them. Azoth knew, immediately, that she was neither as silly nor harmless as first impressions might imply, but what he could not be sure of is if she were a different sort of fool: the kind of fool who does not realize the sharp difference between their positions and would see fit to sit behind protections from him that he himself cannot have from her.
So that she is so forthright to his question was not something he predicted.
"You are loyal to Solaris," Azoth concludes, "And dedicated to its development and prosperity."
Someone far more logical, and far more dedicated, than most of the agents he's seen to a system so sick and broken it kills its own, making slaves of organic and machine alike by whatever means it discovers to do so.
Rachiel is, indeed, a dangerous individual. She speaks of control through kindness, and Azoth has to wonder, knowing his objectives, how carefully her words were chosen here. If, through all her work with OS, she was aware of how effective all of it was.
He hates it.
"...You presume to have identified what it is I think and what my natural state is and is not. You presume to think that there is a way I want to talk. Is this part of your shepherding, User Rachiel?"
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Is my presumption wrong? I don't mind being wrong--rather, I know that my station is more--what did she call it--privileged than yours regardless of how the overarching structure, so I will listen and adapt as I can." Is Rachiel's goal really to control through kindness? Or does she simply recognize the practicality in what is already her inclination?
Rachiel is, let's face it, definitely as silly as she appears with her goofy little mug, and her freeness with her emotions and her fascination and admiration of the sweet and adorable mechanical lifeforms she's had to look out for and her tendency to trip over her own feet and her ability to fall asleep at her keyboard during work hours, being shuttered off in a dark silly corner of the base.
Indeed, surely all that silliness cannot be wholly artifice.
But you must never imagine that just because something is silly, Messire Marquis, it is not also dangerous.
"Mmm...I'm not sure that's quite right," Rachiel says. "If I were to ammend it I'd say--I am loyal to Solaris and dedicated to its reformation. So long as we consider ourselves infallible and superior to the people of the surface, we cannot learn from them--or pass on our own teachings. Right now Solaris exploits the surface as its foremost priority but that doesn't mean Solaris has given nothing back to the security of Filgaia. If we could push the system away from one of unrestricted greed and one that provides more give and take--the arc would bend more to justice than the current unrestricted spite suggests."
But that brings it back to Azoth's last question.
Rachiel cups her chin, truly thinking about her answer beyond her initial response.
Were her instincts wrong? No, the way Azoth said that--it is not precisely about whether she read Azoth wrong or not but that the issue is...a calculated reading in of itself?
"I'm not trying to decide how you think or how you feel for you ether," Rachiel says. "If you'd rather that I try not to get a feel for how you think or feel, I can try? But isn't that just how people ...normally interact with one another?"
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Reformation, prosperity... It may be a matter of how each defines those words, and perhaps that Azoth worded it as such in his own conclusions is telling of itself. But then again, informal language is a troublesome, imprecise thing.
Everything she says, as far as Azoth's calculations are concerned, is rooted in a deep logic he has not observed in many other of Solaris' members. Any of them so far, in fact. He can respect the practicality for what it is while respecting the teeth her grip on practicality itself has.
Azoth can also see that Rachiel is trying. He isn't doubting her sincerity, but sincerity isn't inherently less dangerous, either.
His demeanor shifts, like a doll enchanted to life as a smile lights up his face, his eyes bright and clear, and his stiff posture 'relaxing'. Azoth sets Rachiel's coffee back in front of her, reheated and wafting. "Maybe you've got the right of it after all, Miss Rachiel. I suppose I should meet you half way, at least! Would this demeanor make it easier for you to try and read me, do you think? Ah, careful with that! I wasn't sure how hot you'd like it, so it may need a minute."
Azoth folds his arms behind his back, rocking back on his heels idly. "But here's the funny thing... outside of certain high priority objectives and overrides, I'm programmed to obey you as a user within Solaris, Miss Rachiel. Whether you word it like a command, or request it kindly... The result is the same. You'll never be sure if I'm responding to you or even helping and protecting you because you were kind to me, or if I have to, even if you weren't."
His smile warms, like the rays of the sun cutting through a veil of clouds. Even his tone captures a soft sincerity no matter how much the words don't match.
"And neither will I."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
It's pretty startling to see Azoth switch through masks, even for Rachiel who sometimes wears different masks. She understands, for a moment, why Loren sometimes just keeps his trap shut. But more than that, it shines a light on the nature of power. She thinks of Lan, who really did care for Loren, and how she had to desperately no matter what flee from him. Solaris has such power over Azoth that being just a kind superior officer--or even just a fellow officer--is just impossible.
She collects the coffee mug, now hot. She sets it down to let it cool a bit but also to reflect on it.
"I didn't ask you to refill the coffee." Rachiel mulls. "Maybe you're just a kind person inclined to be helpful to others. But perhaps your control program told you to be helpful. Maybe it didn't. But you can't know if it's your choice, or theirs. And because you can't know, there is no room for trust because the power dynamic greater than either one of us ensures there is no room for trust. Even if my intentions were pure, I could accidentally make a decision for you. Just by existing I make decisions for you."
She sighs, leaning against the head of he chair, shoulders drooping. She is truly miserable.
"Maybe that is why Elhaym left us. Not just because she could afford to, but because power kept her from her true desire. Its mere presence poisoned everything. Maybe I owe her an apology."
Tears glisten in her eyes. Her hands shake against the top of her chair. It's frightening just to think about, taking Elly's path. Perhaps that is what Elly meant by her beliefs meaning anything. She's not worried about what would happen to her. "My family." She says. "They already lost my brother."
But maybe that's just the price of power. It asks for not just your life, but for the lives of those you love? Dost thou desire the power, Rachiel?
"I told myself I'd be different than those cruel men. But maybe they just understood that simply existing as a Solarian is to be cruel and felt it kinder to avoid a deceitful pretense. I really wanted to be her friend, OS's friend too. But it's impossble isn't it? So long as I can't abandon my home, I can't be friends with her, or you."
She is quiet for a long dreadful moment.
"Okay," Rachiel says. "I won't ask anything of you ever again except for the one I'm about to make. I'll try not to."
She turns back around, back to Azoth, sword set on the table beside her unsheathed but her attention isn't on it.
"Make use of me as you'd like, in ways you feel is truly you." Rachiel says. "But please don't let my family die with me."
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
She understands. Azoth watches her wilt under the realization of it. All of it is true, and again, he can't be sure if the urge to comfort her is programmed or true pity. Rachiel exists in an uncomfortable space -- someone he's supposed to take care of, with limited options surrounding that.
And then her heartfelt plea. It actually is an order, given like that. It's possible someone else could directly override it with the right authority, but it would be an oddly specific command to want to override unless her family somehow got mixed up in his higher objectives. Azoth brings his hand to his head. His voice is still in persona-mode despite the chosen vocabulary.
"Error. Command only partially accepted. Objective 'don't let your family die with you' set. Other input not understood. 'Truly you' and 'as I'd like' must be defined."
He smiles gently, bending down to be more on level with Rachiel. "...That's how deep this goes. It makes you squirm, I know, thinking of telling me how to behave. But I'm just a long list of things someone else decided. Tell me to be truly myself around you, and... I will. I'd have to. But... you'll have to tell me what truth means to you. I was not designed for a face like this one. Would you consider the truth, then, to emote nothing at all, while speaking in my default settings? Or do you wish to see the highest level of internal feedback displayed at any given time, understanding my attempts to express it may be inaccurate?"
Azoth grins a little. "I don't recommend the second one. It wouldn't be efficient for the end user experience."
Then he's quiet again. "...It's not trust. Like you said, it never can be."
...
"I'm sorry."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Rachiel can't let her family die for whatever she might do. She really can't. Even if they hate and despise her, the idea that her choices might doom them is something she cannot allow. The hypocracy hardly matters.
"I have a sister, Mikaela." Rachiel says. "She's four years old. My father is Noah. My mother is Hannah. We all have the same last name. My older brother is already dead."
She closes her eyes for a moment.
Then she smacks herself in the face twice and alt tabs, opening up folders and clicking with the mouse, eyes scanning them. That moment of pain and angst slowly fades behind her eyes as a coolness enters her expression. She's looking for Azoth's personel folder. She's not going to try to break into anything clasified, but he is going to see where the classified information begins, at least.
"It's not your fault," Rachiel says as if she detached herself from herself. "But maybe I can find whose it is?"
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
"Acknowledged," Azoth says, as she describes her family. And then, less robotic: "...Don't worry, I understand the intention behind a command like this. I'll prioritize their protection regardless of your vital status in the event it becomes necessary."
In other words, don't get yourself killed just to activate the code, Rachiel.
Azoth 'likes' protecting. It's a command from Solaris that at least doesn't rake across him with the pain of overrides. ... That Rachiel gave such an order, perhaps ironically in all the discomfort of giving orders, is a ding of positive feedback he did not expect to receive.
Well, he is a machine.
Azoth tilts his head to the side. "You would--"
He glances down.
"Thank you."
...He'll really never know if he could have trusted her, and it's yet another painful thing Solaris has stolen from him.