InsaneJournal

OMFG! Anakin might do ~something~ *pearl clutch* (darkforcerising) wrote in makebelievelog,
@ 2012-10-09 17:22:00

Entry tags:

anakin skywalker, h.g. wells, ickle anakin skywalker

Who: Anakin, H. G. and Ani the Younger
What: Anakin gives H. G. the tour of his Workroom of Wonder (it’s a working title) and ickle Anakin is adorable and wins over another adult lady to his side.
When: Monday afternoon
Where: The room Anakin has sequestered for his Workroom of Wonder
Rating/Warnings: Probably low, it’s doubtful these two will start making plans of world domination ~~yet~~
Status: In progress/Closed

The front door of Anakin’s workroom was open a crack; he was hardly expecting this meeting to be formal. But one would think he would have a slight bit more embarrassment regarding the catastrophic mess that was the space beyond the front door. Piles of wires, mounds of metal casings, stashes of chips were scattered about the room, and other odds and ends where littered between what could only charitably be called organization. Anakin would argue he knew where everything was and nothing on the ground was dangerous. He wouldn’t, however, recommend walking through the room barefoot.

But criticism wouldn’t budge his love for the room and its general disorder. Here he could make whatever he wanted without the questioning concern of anyone. Padmé and her need for something more tidy than this mess and her insistence that it remain in this room (though he had to admit he loved that about her along with everything else); the Order and their fear that every step he took, no matter how innocuous seeming it may be, was indication of his darkside tendencies; and maybe even his own fears about the darkness that crept along the edges of his heart, none of that matter when he worked within the confines of this space.

The mysteries of the cosmos, big and small, really did make more sense when he was working with his hands and the Force to fix things. In a way he needed a space with fine pinpoints of order – order he created – swirling around a central theme of chaos. It was soothing.

And he wouldn’t apologize for it.

When he heard the knock at the door he called, “It’s open, just come in,” over his shoulder without diverting much attention from the component he was working on at the table.

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justasmallfry
2012-10-11 09:04 am UTC (link)

“Artoo?” young Ani’s eyebrow rose slightly. And then he shook his head. “No, he’s not the droid I’ve built. Artoo was built by the droid manufacturer, Industrial Automaton. He was commissioned by the Naboo Royal Engineers to be part of their fleet. But he’s just under my care right now.”

He noticed the parts H. G. was picking up, which made his curiosity spike trying to add the pieces in her hands together in various combinations to guess at what she was thinking of building. From his position by the door he couldn’t see everything in her hand. “What are you building?”

And he was genuinely interested. He started forward again into the room, towards Helena, but then the older version of Anakin cut in.

“Anakin,” the use of the lad’s full name successfully caught his attention, “you know the rules.”

At first the boy’s brow knit in confusion, then with a telling glance from his older self down at his muddy appearance he was reminded of his rather dirty state. There was no way his older self would let Ani take another step into the workroom covered in that much grimy and lake water, amusing though the look may be. “Oh, right. But-”

“Everything and everyone will still be here when you get back,” his older self cut him off, and the older man’s tone left no room for debate. Though it did seem as if for a moment Ani was going to put up just such an argument. He shifted where he stood, rolling on the edges of his feet and the sound of soggy insoles gave away his need for a wash.

With a cross look and a sigh, the younger version relented. “Okaaay.” And he started to leave the room.

“Take your droid with you-”

R2-D2 interrupted with a protest of twitters, but Anakin wasn’t having any of it. “Yes, you too. Look at yourself, you’re covered in mud. You’re leaving a trail of dirt.”

Ani popped around the frame and called to the droid in a way common to put-upon youth everywhere, “C’mon. We have to clean up.” But before he vanished again he looked at Helena, and added, “When I get back, uh, if you’re still here, I want to see what you make. If that’s okay?”

R2-D2 spun around and he, too, left, but not before issuing a series of beeps and whops that left all listeners wondering the precise insult he’d just tweeted, but in no doubt it had been scathingly rude.

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indelibleink
2012-10-11 07:36 pm UTC (link)

While she had no idea what the Industrial Automaton or the Naboo Royal Engineers were, Helena just related to them things she knew. "Ah well, I have to say that Artoo is a very handsome droid." She smiled, looking over R2-D2 again with great admiration for the work that went into building him. And from what she had seen of the droid's ability to move and make noise on his own, there had been great attention and care put into his creation. Though she did note the way Ani had answered her question, which more or less proved that the boy had, in fact, built a droid of his own.

As Ani inquired about what she was building, Helena smiled. "I have yet to figure out what I am building. The most I have right now is wanting to give my mind a puzzle to work out." That curiosity only endeared her more to the boy despite only having just met him. Helena had a great admiration for intelligence and creativity. She would have to inquire later about the things the younger Anakin had built all ready.

Watching the exchange between the older and younger Anakin's, Helena could only smile bemusedly. She took the opportunity to grab a few more various parts before she felt she could start constructing something. She heard that put-upon tone of the younger Anakin's voice and briefly couldn't help but think Christina had been much the same way when she didn't wish to do something she was told. There was a brief flicker of sadness that passed through her heart before she pushed it aside once more. Looking back at the younger Anakin as he addressed her, she smiled warmly.

"I would be more than happy to show you what I make when you come back." As Ani left the room, she couldn't help but to add one more thing, "don't forget to clean behind your ears." It was a reflex, one a mother had. She didn't even fully realize she'd said it until after the mud-covered boy had exited the room. At R2-D2's scathingly rude comment upon leaving, Helena could only chuckle and shake her head. "It would seem that Artoo-Deetoo is quite opinionated," she commented with that bemused smile, looking over at the older Anakin.

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darkforcerising
2012-10-12 01:12 am UTC (link)

Anakin watched his younger self and R2-D2 leave the room with a cloud of grumbling hanging over them both. But he hardly regretted his insistence the boy go up to clean. Not often a stickler for the rules himself, this was one Anakin would uphold. Dirt and mechanics – exposed, unfinished circuitry most specifically – did not mix well. He wouldn’t risk the introduction of pond scum just so his younger self could instantly satisfy his curiosity.

He grinned at Helena with a devious glint to the turn of the corners of his mouth. He’d noticed her fluctuating emotions but she didn’t seem keen on bringing them up so he focused on her observation of the droid. He had a hunch she’d like to know more about him. “I know. It’s not a standard feature on astromech droids. I…” he searched for the right word, “enhanced his programming and hardware during the short time he was in my possession. Much to the great disapproval of all my masters.”

His hands continued to work even as he spoke, he knew what he was doing and it didn’t require his undivided attention. “Astromech droids are designed to assist pilots during space flight. Though most people from my galaxy prefer to think of them as mere tools in their repertoire of equipment, they are as much a co-pilot as any organic sentient life form. Especially in battle. Repairing damage to your ship, rerouting power to failing systems, targeting enemies, plotting flight trajectories, finding ways to make one system compensate for the shortcomings of others. Their info intake and processors make them an extraordinary A.I.”

He paused to snap a chip into place and check the alignment before continuing. “However, most units are… too dull for my, uh, kind of flying or missions. Or preference in companions. I needed one with a more decisive and creative personality to survive, basically. He was already a bit quirky though, so when Padmé, the women I’m married to, transferred his care over to me, it didn’t take much to give him more assertive qualities.”

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indelibleink
2012-10-12 05:56 am UTC (link)

Regardless of age, children would always be children. Helena well knew the need for instant gratification on matters of curiosity. She herself still had it in great amounts, but a child's need for instant gratification went even beyond hers. So she could understand the grumbling as the mud-clad boy and droid went to clean up. Still, it was for the better as the parts in this room didn't need to be contaminated with mud and dirt.

Once it was just her and older Anakin in the room, Helena went over to the materials she'd selected, studying them each individually all the while listening to Anakin's explanation. "Ah, so that extra bit of personality was your touch?" She smirked a bit. "Sometimes things just need to be enhanced. Though there are also times when old-fashioned things work just as well." Despite Myka not being there, it was a pointed comment to her Grappler, even though Anakin wouldn't know that. That didn't exactly matter though, Helena herself was what people liked to call old-fashioned, and she didn't mind it at all. She was still trying to grasp modern science and technology on a larger scale, but she was a quick study when things were explained to her.

Which was why as she started to affix her materials together, she listened closely to Anakin's explanation. Despite her gaze being solely on what she was working on to build, she listened to every word the other man said. And she followed along until he used the term A.I., which caught her complete attention. She glanced up at him, tilting her head slightly. "A.I.?" She was trying to decipher the term within her own mind, but artificial intelligence wasn't exactly a term she was familiar with. Robotics and other such things that fell under that category of science were still beyond her realm of intimate knowledge. Though she was fairly certain the longer she spent around Anakin, the more familiar with that aspect of science she would become. And she rather did like that.

"They do sound useful, being able to make all of those adjustments and decisions to take stress off of the main pilot." Space travel on such a level was something Helena had only imagined and written about in a fictional sense, but she did understand the topic. "From your description it would seem a great many of these astromech droids are all given one kind of personality and are not individualized to the pilot that owns them unless that pilot makes adjustments themselves?" She wasn't certain if that was a correct assumption or not, which was why she'd phrased it as a question. This truly was all fascinating to Helena and she wanted to learn more.

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darkforcerising
2012-10-13 12:09 pm UTC (link)

All Helena got for the comment about the value of old-fashioned things was a dubious look from Anakin. But he wasn’t feeling argumentative, at least not at his usual levels, so he kept his opinions to himself.

“A.I. …? Oh,” Anakin had momentarily forgotten Helena was from a point in Earth time before the planet had even discovered robotics. “It stands for artificial intelligence. They are mechanics with programming that has the ability to adapt to environmental stimuli and new circumstances. They can learn, essentially, and use that new information to change how they would respond to situations.”

Anakin set down the part he was working on to rummage around in the other pieces on his table for the next step in his project.

“There are standard models, yes. It’s easier for mass production. You could always order custom features, if you were in a position of the right kind of wealth, but even that wouldn’t have been enough for my preferences. I like the mechanics I work alongside to have more attitude than most others would allow. For most back in my universe, treating a droid as an equal is distasteful.” His tone clearly indicative how little credence he gave that school of thought.

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indelibleink
2012-10-14 06:40 pm UTC (link)

That dubious look wasn't lost on Helena, but she let it go without comment or retort. She knew the value of progress, of building on what came before, but she also could not help that she herself was still very much rooted within the science she knew from a century prior.

"Artificial intelligence," she repeated softly, committing the term and explanation to her memory. "So basically they are machines that are able to learn and adapt to their environments? Fascinating. The marvels in the advancement in technology is simply breath-taking. So not only can you initially program a behaviour into the machine, it can also learn, adapt and add to that on its own?" This was certainly an area she wanted to learn more about. It wouldn't be that difficult given she all ready knew how to do circuitry given the time machine she'd once built.

In the process of fastening a couple things together, Helena abruptly stopped and looked at it, then looked at the other parts she'd collected. Pursing her lips in thought briefly, she wondered about changing what she was building from something completely unknown to making something she knew how to build. The only thing stopping her was that she was uncertain if she'd ever need to use it. Well, she could always make it later, so muttering softly to herself, she continued on with the current puzzle she was putting together. Even with that distraction, she didn't miss any of what Anakin said.

"So most would see droids much like lower class. Or slaves." Helena looked over at Anakin and shook her head slightly in distaste. "Anyone and anything that has intelligence should be viewed as equal. Clearly droids have intelligence, even if artificial, but they learn and adapt much as any person does." Which sort of brought Helena to one of the things she did truly dislike about progress. In this day and age, people seemed far too reliant on technology. It was so embedded into their every day lives. Helena knew that technology had its uses, but some people took technology's usefulness and abused it horribly.

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darkforcerising
2012-10-15 02:48 am UTC (link)

“That is it exactly,” Anakin nodded. “Artoo also has the advantage of his memory never having been wiped. Most droids will be subject to a complete memory wipe multiple times through their lives. Not something I advocate unless their programing has degraded to a point where the only option is to reset them. But Artoo’s luck is better than most, and he’s escaped that fate. Even after he leaves my care and is under the service of others, no one seems to have it in them to do it.”

Anakin’s expression darkened at the mention of slavery, but he pushed his distaste of the idea, and at even just the word itself aside.

“It is similar to that, yes, they are viewed as expendable pieces of machinery.”

Anakin didn’t have time to say anything more before the excitable bundle of energy that was his younger self appeared in the door frame again. He had been running down the corridor, but now, halted abruptly with his hands on the frame so as to properly contain himself, he gave the impression of water overflowing a dish. R2-D2, seeing no reason to just stop in the door way, completed the image by simply shoving the boy into the room. Ani stumbled for a moment and then, catching and righting himself, he gave his droid an annoyed look while running a hand through the damp ends of his Padawan hair-cut.

He turned a hopeful, if sheepish, face back to the two adults in the room.

“Better?” he pointedly asked his older self in that way adolescents seemed to perfect around this age. In a way that maybe made Anakin, the elder, think all the sighs of endless disapproval Obi-Wan directed his way over the years might actually have been founded. Not that Anakin would ever admit such to his former master.

“Yes,” Anakin acknowledged and waved both the boy and the droid into the room.

Ani, in keeping with his piqued curiosity from before he left, moved over to Helena to see what it was she’d put together. “What is it?”

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indelibleink
2012-10-15 04:44 am UTC (link)

Wiping memories. Even when they were talking about droids, it hit a nerve with Helena having had her memory erased. It had been of her own fault she'd suffered that fate, but it still had been cruel. She'd been rendered to little more than a pawn for the Regents to use her when they wanted. If they had just killed her, Sykes never would have gained access to the Warehouse. Artie would never have had to use the Astrolabe. So many things never would have happened had they simply killed her.

"How people can just simply do that, even to a droid, is cruel beyond all measure. No one should have that power over another intelligent being, even one of artificial making." There was a slight note of anger-tinged resentment in her voice. There were certain subjects that were sore ones with the Victorian woman, and this was one of them. "Still, at least there are some like you who do not practice such things on them. Artoo is certainly lucky to have you." She cast Anakin a little smile, trying to get a grip on her resentment. She couldn't let her emotions get the better of her, and definitely not when she was in the presence of others.

The Victorian woman didn't have tie to say anything further when the younger Anakin returned. She couldn't quite stifle a small laugh as R2-D2 pushed the young man into the room. Helena was affixing another piece into place and studied it for a moment as Ani came over to her. "Well," she began, turning it this way and that, "I think it just might end up being a frequency detector." She looked at Ani with a smile. "What do you think?" The device would undoubted be mostly useless to her here, but that wasn't the point of this. The point was for her to be able to distract herself, to put her mind to work on something outside of itself.

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darkforcerising
2012-10-15 01:07 pm UTC (link)

Helena’s emotional intensity noticeably rose as she spoke about the inappropriateness of wiping someone’s memory. It drew Anakin’s attention away from the device in his hand. The sharpness of her conviction was curious.

He, too, disliked having his memory erased, having had personal experience with that, as well. The one time he’d been shown his future in unequivocal clarity, instead of giving him the opportunity to choose a different path the Force had simply erased the knowledge from his mind. It was infuriating because, he wouldn’t deny it, he wouldn’t know a metaphor if it hit him between the eyes, evidenced by all those visions of warning he did receive that were wrapped in figurative images and that he simply couldn’t make heads or tails of. They always left him feeling more lost than before he viewed them. Given the chance to deviate from the future that waited for him back home, he tried to take it, only to have the Force take it all back.

But there was no time to comment further and find out just how deep Helena’s feelings ran on the subject. Ani was through the door, and because the boy knew nothing of his future but that he married Padmé and that his Master grew older, and because the topic touched on those very experiences the boy knew nothing about, Anakin kept his thoughts to himself.

Ani seemed to have captured Helena’s attention and she his. Not all that unsurprising, the boy rarely encountered someone willing and able to speak to him about mechanics. Especially the ‘willing’ part. Sure, Helena lacked the knowledge of the advanced robotics of their universe, but she clearly exhibited a know-how with circuitry and that was enough for the boy right now. And that lack of knowledge would be remedied in time. The redirection of the conversation of the room was probably for the best.

“Umm,” the young boy looked over the construction of the connections in all seriousness. As he scanned her creation, he asked, “What spectrum are you trying to measure?”

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indelibleink
2012-10-17 03:34 am UTC (link)

Perhaps at a later date, Helena would tell Anakin some of her experiences, but that went deeper than the Victorian woman felt comfortable divulging currently. Of course, she might have actually said more had she know Anakin was able to sense the fluctuation in her emotions and if the younger Anakin hadn't returned. Or if there'd been enough time for the older Anakin to press questions or make comments that opened the door for her responses.

Even with that, she'd come here for distraction from her thoughts, her memories. Perhaps she was running away from the problem, but building things wasn't destructive. And she needed non-destructive ways of dealing with her emotions and her issues. There were still many demons she had yet to confront, but she would face them each in turn. Until then, she'd take these opportunities to keep herself distracted until she felt she was ready to handle these emotions. Helena was lucky to have multiple outlets for her emotions for times like these when she needed them.

At young Ani's inquiry, Helena looked over the connections she was making. "It is supposed to be able to pick up a Farnsworth's frequency. Though it will be useless as I do not think Farnsworths work here." She didn't have one here to test the theory, but she was fairly certain that the others from her world who might have had them weren't using them for a reason. Then as an afterthought, she looked at Ani. "A Farnsworth is an audio and video communicator from the world I am from. It functions anywhere in the world, regardless of distance between devices." Unless one tampered with it, but that was beside the point.

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