sixthiterationlogs | If it can feel, it should feel.

WHO: Niska Elster
WHERE: Hospital | Police Station
WHEN: February 18
OPEN TO: All!
WARNINGS: A kind, gentle Niska (aka, Off Colour shenanigans)

Hospital

She's in the middle of one of her shifts at the hospital when things go awry.

Niska's cynicism immediately tells her that something is being done to punish her for her continued attempts to mine the code in the bunker and expose whatever they've been doing. The video messages had only been a small bit of it. Watching her device reset itself after a blue screen that she knows far too much about, she's on her sharpest watch as it begins to reboot.

Only, something is different.

The orange is gone. In its place, white. She hasn't spent much time on the colours on the devices, exactly. She's reviewed names and people who have been with them and then gone, but she never spends that much time on the actual colours. Perhaps she should have, because then she'd understand why she instantly begins to wonder why she's been spending so much time on research in the hospital and the lab.

She should be treating patients, she should be helping people. That's why she was made, isn't it? David Elster built her to be useful and warm, kind and caring, and she'd fought it for so long, but that's her initial purpose. Setting down her microscope slides and forgetting that, she goes back to the vitamins, only this time, it's not to feel useful for herself or superior. She's doing it because she genuinely cares if the people around her get sick or not.

Glancing up when she sees someone new, she smiles warmer than she ever has here in the settlement. "Do you need help? I'd be happy to assist," she says, pushing off her chair to head over before anyone can beat her to it.

Police Station

Instead of going home immediately after her shift, Niska does something she never has before.

She's never needed to eat, but it now occurs to her that the animals within the cells will certainly need their meal. Honestly she's not sure why she never thought of it, but after a quick stop at the inn, she heads into the adapted barn with a bucket of grains, greens, and other little treats that she'd picked up. Her device white instead of orange, she pays little mind to it. The animals are clearly more of a concern now, and she approaches them to tend to their needs.

Soothing them, feeding them, patting them. In this moment, she's far more caring and maternal than she has been in years. Seven years, if she's honest. She had never been created to be a mother to Leo, but she'd possessed the necessary traits, ones that simply got buried too deep.

"Easy now," she soothes one of the animals when it seems to panic, at the sound of new footsteps. "It's just a new friend with us. That shouldn't be cause for worry at all," she says, turning to give her new visitor a warm smile. "Come in, I was just going to see if could get any milk from the goats today."

If Mia could see her now, she'd laugh until her battery died. As it happens, Niska isn't even aware that there's something to laugh at, so she keeps on, helpful and smiling and warm -- all the things she hasn't been since the first time she was used for something so very apart from her intended purpose.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Indeed there is," North agrees, shifting on the stool. "Theta's excited to work with animals. I might have my job here decided for me if this doesn't go terribly."

Which would be an amusing prospect, wouldn't it? He'd never really involved himself with animals growing up, so to have himself so immediately tied to them here would definitely be an amusing choice on their next pass through life.

Niska kneels down by the goat's mouth to feed it, holding out a palmful at a time, smiling at him even if she's intrigued and wary about this theta in ways that she doesn't want to think about. She's sure that it will be fine, and she shouldn't fuss.

"Well, I'd be happy if you decided you liked it. Goat's milk for everyone," she insists cheerfully.

"Healthy and delicious. I hope."

He laughs and settles his attention on the goat. Carefully. Is there a gesture he should be using? He doesn't even know.

"Is there a way that I work my hands on the... teats? I think that's the right word."

She glances up and even though she's feeling warmer and far more helpful, her warning of, "Don't squeeze," is as sharp as Niska usually is. "You're going to gently cup the teat to start expressing the milk and then gently knead it out. Then, repeat," she says, palm out to offer it to the goat while she speaks to North.

With the additional information given and Theta to monitor his pressure help him find an effective motion sooner than just mere trial and error, North finally puts his hands to the teats. The first two attempts mostly get the goat shifting in a touch of annoyance at his failure. But soon he gets the first squirt of milk and he isn't sure who the smile on his face belongs to, Theta or himself.

"I did it," he beams at Niska before repeating the action. And soon he's got a pretty steady motion down.

She's just as proud, which should feel odd and strange, but it doesn't. Instead, she's simply going to keep going with this strange feeling that she wants to encourage this onwards and nurse this feeling of warmth towards humanity.

Maybe she just had to stop fighting it?

"Yes, you did," she praises. "Which means that you're going to certainly keep helping with the chores, I hope," she can't help but suggest, with an amused look on her face.

"Oh that's definitely going to happen. Did I mention that Theta loves animals?" North asks with a smile, looking up at her and letting his hands work on their own. "And since we can't get a dog, it's the closest we can get to working with animals. And I needed something to do here."

And fostering life like this seems pretty good to him.

"Did they program the AI with specific traits?" She doesn't want to appear that she only wants to ask questions to learn more, as that would be very much a selfish thing, but it still is something that she's interested in.

Perhaps if she keeps talking and learning about him, it won't seem so self-centred. "Love of dogs, hatred of something else, like rainstorms or something of the like?"

"Program him with them? No. They're their own people. Their personalities are their own. Within a certain part of the AI community they can be pretty different, as colorful and unique as people, even if they do still have programs they have to follow some. But Theta's about as different from his brothers as I am from my twin."

So there you go, that's what it is. Theta who trusts people too easy, and who plays with the need to be depended on. Who was scared of what people might do to him, and who hated the darkness and being alone.

North got it. He loves it.

It's everything that she'd wanted to hear from a human and Niska gets emotional for a moment. Her throat tightens up and her smile is soft. "It's big of you to say that. Not everyone feels that way about artificial life," she points out, because she's been fighting against it for so long.

It had nearly taken Astrid from her, simply because of people's hatred. "You must be grateful to always have someone with you, then."

Yeah. Yeah, North gets what she means. He pauses briefly and can't help the sad look on his face. Because he knows how Theta was created. And that only underlined how North was in a minority.

"In a way I am. I was born a twin, and all my life I had my sister with me. And now I have Theta. I admit I wouldn't mind some of my old privacy that he could offer me by withdrawing into his chip, but I don't have to face all of this place alone, and neither does he."

"I had siblings, back home," Niska admits. "One of them, we lost, but I still have the others," she says, though it sometimes feels like she'd lost them too in the awakening and everything that had happened. "I always loved feeling like we could take on the world," she admits with a fond smile.

"There's no way that you can ask him for privacy?" she tries. "Something that will allow you time to yourself?"

"With South, I felt that way. Which was pretty useful, given our race was at war."

But that's not a happy thought and at last he takes his hand from the goat, not even focusing on the rather impressively full bucket before him. Actually, after a moment of thought he moves it out of kicking range, just in case.

"Not easily, the privacy thing. When he had his chip or the armor, it was something. These days he's fully integrated into my brain. It's like two people thinking with one mind. Can't just make one stop. I'm aware of him and he's aware of me."

"At war with...who? Or what?" Niska is starting to feel a touch wary, but she wants to give the benefit of the doubt. Yes, for her, that's odd. And yes, she's beginning to notice that creeping sensation that says that something is strange. She's still feeding the animal, but at the same time, she's trying to make plans and running this through her mind rapidly.

"I can't imagine having a..." She nearly says 'a human', but stops herself. "It's an odd thing to imagine."

"Twin? Yeah, most people can't. It's definitely an experience that doesn't make sense unless you live it. And now I get to just try and be like everyone else."

Of course Theta prevents that in some ways, but he still sticks to his point. There was something irreplaceable about a twin. At last he stood, stretching a bit. "Not going to get more from her. Is there more that needs done. I'd like to learn more about this stuff."

If it can feel, it should feel.

She already had him sit so just assuming she didn't say that now

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