04 - Royalist Robot
Nov. 4th, 2020 11:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aprilmarchItem 04035906 - Junked Android
This item is a robot built with technlogy far surpassing modern manufacture techniques. It was aquired by the Departamento after it had ceased to function, but it had apparently been active for nearly two decades before that.
According to our research, the item was found in the early 90's by [REDACTED], a junkyard proprietor, in the city of [REDACTED] in the countryside of Ceará. In an interview, she related she found the object half-buried in sand in the early nineties - she could not remember the precise year. It appeared to be a statue, as it was undamaged but immobile. Its legs were stuck in a position that resembled that of a cyclist, so the proprietor and some of her family members put it on a bicycle as a joke. To their surprise, it started to move its legs on its own, and after an hour or so of biking it started to speak.
The object apparently desired to serve [REDACTED]'s family, as long as said service involved riding bikes. Throughout the years, they used it to haul metal using a cart attached to a bicycle, which was also used to transport children and tourists during festivities. The people of the city believed the object to be one (or more) of [REDACTED]'s children in costume.
During this time, the object resembled a large human being wearing metallic armor. In reality, it was made entirely of metal, except for connections in the joints made of an unknown textile. Circuits were integrated throughout the metal through unknown technologic construction techniques.
At some time in 2016, the family stated that the object had been destroyed and offered to sell its parts. According to [REDACTED] ,it just 'fell apart on its own' one morning. An agent with the Departamento, who previously believed the object to be a costumed actor, found this sale suspicious, and bought a small part, confirming it to contain unknown technologies, and requested for all parts to be bought. A Departamento asset performed the purchase pretending to be an eccentric collector. No veiling protocol was deemed necessary as all in the city believed the object to be a man in a costume, and that [REDACTED]'s family insistence to the contrary is an attempt to keep the mystique.
The pieces were brought to the nearest Departamento site where the object's current properties were observed. No technology presently exists to repair the object, and the reason for its destruction cannot be ascertained. Examination of its surface under an electron microscope suggests the entire body was built using nanotechnology, using an unknown metallic alloy that's built atom by atom so each part of the material serves a different purpose. The object's processing power comes from atoms specially placed to create circuit boards.
While the object cannot be repaired, it was briefly possible to interface with it by flashing a laser at a lens-like orifice under the neck. After some examination, it was determined that the flashing light emmited by it served as an output if decoded into text, and flashing a laser light into it could work as an input. The following exchange happened during the only succesful attempt to interface with the object. 'Speakers' are object (O) and researcher (R).
O: Unknown general error. Body unresponsive. Bring to manufacturer immediately. Do not attempt to reuse parts. Repeating. Unknown general error.
R: Input test.
[at this point, the flashing light halted briefly]
R: Input test.
O: Who is this? Why are you using this interface?
R: My name is [REDACTED], senior IT researcher at the Departamento de Prevenção a Anomalias. We cannot use any other interfaces at the moment.
O: What is your title?
R: Senior IT researcher.
O: I meant your nobility title.
R: I do not have one.
O: Please bring me to the presence of a noble, or to the manufacturing plant for repairs.
R: Where is the manufacturing plant?
O: [Coordinates redacted. They refer to a factory in the Zona Franca de Manaus last owned by a Nintendo subsidiary, presently undergoing a lawsuit to determine the current rightsholder].
R: I cannot take you ther at this moment. However, I am a government agent. Is that not enough for you?
O: It is not. Please do not attempt to meddle any further.
R: Can I ask you questions about the [REDACTED] family?
O: They are anarchists and deceivers.
R: They are anarchists?
O: Yes. They wish to destroy the current order.
R: In what way?
O: They wish to elect a president.
R: I don't think anarchists are very keen on elections.
O: Anarchists, republicans - the distinction is minimal. They both intend to destroy the proper order of things.
R: Can you tell me why electing a president is bad?
O: If you do not know, you are yourself an anarchist, and I wish no association with you.
R: Humour me, please.
O: Even if I wished to, I cannot be more clear than the facts themselves. The idea that power should belong to a president - to a commonner empowered by nothing but the whims of other commoners - is poison to a peaceful Empire.
R: What Empire do you mean?
O: The Grand Brazilian Empire, naturally.
R: Can you tell me who rules it?
O: I cannot. I have not been able to access any network since I was reactivated by [REDACTED]'s meddling. I do not know who sits in the throne presently.
R: Who was the ruler before that?
O: All my memory before that has been erased, sadly.
R: Including those pertaining to your own existence?
O: Correct.
R: So you called [REDACTED] and her family anarchists and deceivers because they said they would vote for a president?
O: That is why they are anarchists. They are deceivers because they tricked me into servitude.
R: You did not wish to serve?
O: Not them. I was built to serve nobles only. But they tricked me into thinking they were nobles, and by the time I realised their treachery I had already pledged myself to them, and couldn't renege my vow.
R: How did they trick you?
O: They had a carriage?
R: What sort of carriage?
O: A noble's carriage.
R: Can you describe it?
O: It was small and yellow. I did not think it looked much like a carriage, but as I could not access the network or my memories, I had to follow my programming.
R: What did your programming say?
O: That I should find a noble family to follow, and that anyone who owned a carriage was a noble.
R: So the [REDACTED] family did not falsely state to be nobles.
O: They did by owning a carriage.
R: I still do not understand what the carriage is. They appear to have a large cart for carrying junk, is that what you refer to?
O: Do not speak inanities.
R: Please describe in further detail the carriage.
O: It was about two meters across. It was yellow. It ran on gasoline. It had four wheels and carried four people.
R: Ah, you speak of an automobile.
O: That is the term the anarchists used for it. It appears that amongst them, anyone thinks themselves fit for a carriage.
R: Wait, is that why you were built to ride a bycicle?
O: Exactly. Although I am built to serve nobles, I am naturally not a noble myself, thus I cannot drive a carriage.
R: Can you define a carriage for me?
O: Its definition is widely known.
R: Again, please humour me.
O: A carriage is any vehicle that provides its own motion through non-organic means.
R: So nothing that uses animal or human force to move.
O: Precisely.
R: Wait, wouldn't your bicycle be a carriage them?
O: Do not slander me, researcher. Impersonating a noble in any mode is a grave crime, especially for one such as me, who is built to serve.
R: But you said that any vehicle that moves through non-organic means counts as a carriage.
O: Correct.
R: And when you are riding a bicycle, you are the engine providing the motion.
O: Correct.
R: And you are not organic, correct?
O: [Garbled response, later found to be the word 'correct' sent through a much lower bitrate]
R: Could you repeat that?
R: Hello?
R: Input test
R: Input test
No further communication with the object has been possible since them. The output light has stopped flashing.
The senior researcher has been reprimanded.
This item is a robot built with technlogy far surpassing modern manufacture techniques. It was aquired by the Departamento after it had ceased to function, but it had apparently been active for nearly two decades before that.
According to our research, the item was found in the early 90's by [REDACTED], a junkyard proprietor, in the city of [REDACTED] in the countryside of Ceará. In an interview, she related she found the object half-buried in sand in the early nineties - she could not remember the precise year. It appeared to be a statue, as it was undamaged but immobile. Its legs were stuck in a position that resembled that of a cyclist, so the proprietor and some of her family members put it on a bicycle as a joke. To their surprise, it started to move its legs on its own, and after an hour or so of biking it started to speak.
The object apparently desired to serve [REDACTED]'s family, as long as said service involved riding bikes. Throughout the years, they used it to haul metal using a cart attached to a bicycle, which was also used to transport children and tourists during festivities. The people of the city believed the object to be one (or more) of [REDACTED]'s children in costume.
During this time, the object resembled a large human being wearing metallic armor. In reality, it was made entirely of metal, except for connections in the joints made of an unknown textile. Circuits were integrated throughout the metal through unknown technologic construction techniques.
At some time in 2016, the family stated that the object had been destroyed and offered to sell its parts. According to [REDACTED] ,it just 'fell apart on its own' one morning. An agent with the Departamento, who previously believed the object to be a costumed actor, found this sale suspicious, and bought a small part, confirming it to contain unknown technologies, and requested for all parts to be bought. A Departamento asset performed the purchase pretending to be an eccentric collector. No veiling protocol was deemed necessary as all in the city believed the object to be a man in a costume, and that [REDACTED]'s family insistence to the contrary is an attempt to keep the mystique.
The pieces were brought to the nearest Departamento site where the object's current properties were observed. No technology presently exists to repair the object, and the reason for its destruction cannot be ascertained. Examination of its surface under an electron microscope suggests the entire body was built using nanotechnology, using an unknown metallic alloy that's built atom by atom so each part of the material serves a different purpose. The object's processing power comes from atoms specially placed to create circuit boards.
While the object cannot be repaired, it was briefly possible to interface with it by flashing a laser at a lens-like orifice under the neck. After some examination, it was determined that the flashing light emmited by it served as an output if decoded into text, and flashing a laser light into it could work as an input. The following exchange happened during the only succesful attempt to interface with the object. 'Speakers' are object (O) and researcher (R).
O: Unknown general error. Body unresponsive. Bring to manufacturer immediately. Do not attempt to reuse parts. Repeating. Unknown general error.
R: Input test.
[at this point, the flashing light halted briefly]
R: Input test.
O: Who is this? Why are you using this interface?
R: My name is [REDACTED], senior IT researcher at the Departamento de Prevenção a Anomalias. We cannot use any other interfaces at the moment.
O: What is your title?
R: Senior IT researcher.
O: I meant your nobility title.
R: I do not have one.
O: Please bring me to the presence of a noble, or to the manufacturing plant for repairs.
R: Where is the manufacturing plant?
O: [Coordinates redacted. They refer to a factory in the Zona Franca de Manaus last owned by a Nintendo subsidiary, presently undergoing a lawsuit to determine the current rightsholder].
R: I cannot take you ther at this moment. However, I am a government agent. Is that not enough for you?
O: It is not. Please do not attempt to meddle any further.
R: Can I ask you questions about the [REDACTED] family?
O: They are anarchists and deceivers.
R: They are anarchists?
O: Yes. They wish to destroy the current order.
R: In what way?
O: They wish to elect a president.
R: I don't think anarchists are very keen on elections.
O: Anarchists, republicans - the distinction is minimal. They both intend to destroy the proper order of things.
R: Can you tell me why electing a president is bad?
O: If you do not know, you are yourself an anarchist, and I wish no association with you.
R: Humour me, please.
O: Even if I wished to, I cannot be more clear than the facts themselves. The idea that power should belong to a president - to a commonner empowered by nothing but the whims of other commoners - is poison to a peaceful Empire.
R: What Empire do you mean?
O: The Grand Brazilian Empire, naturally.
R: Can you tell me who rules it?
O: I cannot. I have not been able to access any network since I was reactivated by [REDACTED]'s meddling. I do not know who sits in the throne presently.
R: Who was the ruler before that?
O: All my memory before that has been erased, sadly.
R: Including those pertaining to your own existence?
O: Correct.
R: So you called [REDACTED] and her family anarchists and deceivers because they said they would vote for a president?
O: That is why they are anarchists. They are deceivers because they tricked me into servitude.
R: You did not wish to serve?
O: Not them. I was built to serve nobles only. But they tricked me into thinking they were nobles, and by the time I realised their treachery I had already pledged myself to them, and couldn't renege my vow.
R: How did they trick you?
O: They had a carriage?
R: What sort of carriage?
O: A noble's carriage.
R: Can you describe it?
O: It was small and yellow. I did not think it looked much like a carriage, but as I could not access the network or my memories, I had to follow my programming.
R: What did your programming say?
O: That I should find a noble family to follow, and that anyone who owned a carriage was a noble.
R: So the [REDACTED] family did not falsely state to be nobles.
O: They did by owning a carriage.
R: I still do not understand what the carriage is. They appear to have a large cart for carrying junk, is that what you refer to?
O: Do not speak inanities.
R: Please describe in further detail the carriage.
O: It was about two meters across. It was yellow. It ran on gasoline. It had four wheels and carried four people.
R: Ah, you speak of an automobile.
O: That is the term the anarchists used for it. It appears that amongst them, anyone thinks themselves fit for a carriage.
R: Wait, is that why you were built to ride a bycicle?
O: Exactly. Although I am built to serve nobles, I am naturally not a noble myself, thus I cannot drive a carriage.
R: Can you define a carriage for me?
O: Its definition is widely known.
R: Again, please humour me.
O: A carriage is any vehicle that provides its own motion through non-organic means.
R: So nothing that uses animal or human force to move.
O: Precisely.
R: Wait, wouldn't your bicycle be a carriage them?
O: Do not slander me, researcher. Impersonating a noble in any mode is a grave crime, especially for one such as me, who is built to serve.
R: But you said that any vehicle that moves through non-organic means counts as a carriage.
O: Correct.
R: And when you are riding a bicycle, you are the engine providing the motion.
O: Correct.
R: And you are not organic, correct?
O: [Garbled response, later found to be the word 'correct' sent through a much lower bitrate]
R: Could you repeat that?
R: Hello?
R: Input test
R: Input test
No further communication with the object has been possible since them. The output light has stopped flashing.
The senior researcher has been reprimanded.
