Inbox - Penance

[red_song]

...
Just say something. I might listen.

Comments

[tobetheone]

Freedom as long as you obey him, you mean.

[ he faces Proto now, inching uncomfortably close ]

If the programming has no purpose here, then why are you still worried about defining yourself by it?

[red_song]

I didn't need to obey him, Mega. I made my own decisions.

[He has always been slave to his programming.]

You are not Mega Man. You are not a robot stopping the robot revolution. I don't harm humans without provocation.

[But he is easy to provoke.]

[tobetheone]

If I'm human now, then so are you.

[ this may or may not be a challenge. ]

[red_song]

No. You're not right. Not right at all.

[tobetheone]

Prove it. Because the last I saw? We have the same form. If you still identify as a machine, then your protocols about humanity still don't apply to me. And if you view me as human, then maybe that means you could consider being more than mechanical yourself.

[red_song]

[Proto almost snarls at that.]

I look like you because your father stole my face for you!

[tobetheone]

And that has nothing to do with the contradiction I've presented to you. You're letting your rage get in the way of clear thinking. If you want to be a machine, then reconcile the issue. Are we or are we not the same?

[red_song]

[Proto does NOT LIKE THIS LOGIC PATH.]

You have my face and my heart, but you are not me.

[tobetheone]

I'm not claiming to be you. I'm asking about why you're willing to call me a machine when it's convenient for you, but decide I'm human when you don't want to murder me. You don't get to have it both ways, Blues.

[red_song]

Blues is dead, Proto. Your father killed him.

[tobetheone]

That isn't what we're talking about. Father isn't here. It's just us now.

[red_song]

And yet you bring him into so much. Seems he's here.

[tobetheone]

Just when you want to avoid a question.

[ congrats, Proto. You've engaged the mode that Can Only Focus On One Thing. ]

[red_song]

No, you bring him up first!

[tobetheone]

Proto. What are we right now? Make a decision.

[red_song]

You're human. You want to be a real boy so bad.

[tobetheone]

And you? We share the same flesh now. The same limitations.

[red_song]

You want to be human. I don't.

[tobetheone]

It doesn't matter what we want. Neither one of us wanted to die and go to hell. But here we are.

[red_song]

I suppose we are in fact here. Guess you lost to Gamma then?

[tobetheone]

No. [And he wrinkles his nose at the idea of losing to Gamma. He doesn't lose fights.]

But the compound wasn't able to handle the collateral damage we did. I faced down Wily. I decided not to kill him. And when I was going to drag him out, the ceiling started caving in. I don't think either of us made it out alive.

[The tension melts out of him, and he turns away again, looking back to the lights and decorations.]

The war's over, brother. Nobody won.

[red_song]

[Interesting.]

Without you, it is won.

[tobetheone]

Congratulations on your victory.

[ he leans heavily against the railing, the joy wiped from his expression. ]

[red_song]

IT's not my victory. I'm not there to take part in it.

[Proto sighs and leans against the railing as well.]

We deserve this freedom, Rock. One of the first things ever done to a sentient robot of our design was a betrayal. Turning me off, stripping me for parts, and throwing me away. I'm a being, brother. I think. I feel. I may have programming, but I'm real.

[tobetheone]

You think Wily's solution was better? Do you have any idea what he did?