Inbox - Penance

[red_song]

...
Just say something. I might listen.

Comments

[tobetheone]

By trusting me? Talking to me? Blues, you're the only brother I have left. I want to know more about your life.

[red_song]

[Whose fault was it that he was the only brother left? And Proto had never had a brother.]

I didn't have one, Rock. Father saw to that.

[tobetheone]

[That is a very complicated question that he would prefer not to answer.]

You have one now. And we can have one together.

[red_song]

[No, that doesn't make sense.]

Why should we? This place is supposedly punishment.

[tobetheone]

You think that means we should face punishment alone? Is that what you want for me?

[red_song]

I'm saying that you shouldn't assume this will stay the way it is.

[tobetheone]

When it changes, we change with it. [It's not hard, brother.]

[red_song]

That isn't what our kind does.

[tobetheone]

We're the only ones of our kind here. We can behave however we want to. And I choose to adapt.

[red_song]

Adapting is human.

[tobetheone]

And you'd prefer obsolescence? Even when you have the chance to change it?

[red_song]

Who said we'd be obsolescent unless they designed into us.

[tobetheone]

You know that isn't what I meant.

[ he huffs and crosses his arms, petulant. ]

[red_song]

[No, he doesn't.]

You want us to be more than we are.

[tobetheone]

No. I know that we are more than they told us we are. We aren't limited by programming, especially not here.

[red_song]

Still believing your little fantasy I see.

[tobetheone]

Push me over the railing.

[red_song]

That isn't really something I'm willing to do today.

[tobetheone]

Why not? We serve the program, don't we? Wily's machines are programmed to kill me.

So do it. Complete the task.

[red_song]

Wily's machines are programmed for freedom. You stand between us and that.

[He will not complete the task.]

It serves no purpose here.

[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.