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Tweak says, "She sent us a biter-gram,y'all"

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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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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