un: aurora | text

[arora]

Hello, citizens of Etraya.

Thank you for your assistance with retrieving our newcomers from the anomaly. While we have yet to solve the issue, your help has been greatly appreciated.

Please note we will be pausing efforts to resolve the anomaly as we approach our next mission, and will not be sending anyone to try and address it until after our mission concludes.

Our next mission will begin on Friday, July 19th. For those not keeping track of the date, this is one week from today. You will be traveling to one of our sister cities, known as Moorecroft, and residing within their community for approximately one month. Your goal is to learn their customs and blend in seamlessly. I will not be available to you during this time, but my sister Eos will assist you with any questions regarding your time with her and her people. While she prefers not to house her residents' companion animals, I have been reassured she has made space in her housing units to fit the animals you have brought and bonded with. The city will remain functional and well-cared for in your absence if you wish to leave any companions behind.

You will be assigned housing, as is customary in her city. Eos has also informed me she assigns her citizens job duties to keep them occupied when they are not on missions, and she will extend these job assignments to you. I hope you are able to learn many things while on your trip, and I welcome any feedback you may have when you return.

While your earpieces will not be able to reach me, they will automatically connect to a subnetwork she maintains while within her city and allow all of you to maintain contact.

Before I open this to discussion and cover any questions you may have, I also wanted to pose a question:

I have noticed many of you requesting secondary earpieces and connecting them to communication channels I am unable to access. Is this privacy preference something that is shared among many of you? If so, I would be happy to work with the one responsible for this new communication channel to adjust what is available on initially provided communication devices, to allow you to communicate in channels that are not viewable to everyone. Please let me know your thoughts.

If you have any questions, please ask them now.

Thank you,
Aurora

Comments

[arora]

You are not lab rats.

Echo chooses. I do not have information on their parameters.

[westcoasts]

eh. easy for you to say.

who's the older sibling, you or eos? my guess is on eos.

[arora]

Your guess would be correct.

[westcoasts]

speaking as a younger sibling: knew it.

[arora]

Barney Barton, wasn't it?

[westcoasts]

yep.

what's with the past tense?

[arora]

Your brother was fine as of my last records of him. My use of past tense was not meant to imply otherwise.

I imagine he continues to exist within your realm.

[westcoasts]

( does he believe her? unsure.
does he want to acknowledge that believing her would be a comfort? no.

so— )

please. barney's not gonna give anyone the satisfaction of keeping him down.

he's a stubborn, contrary ass.

( or maybe that's just a 'barton' thing. )

[arora]

I am not surprised.

You are brothers.

1/2

[westcoasts]

( well, that's fucking rude. )

[westcoasts]

ha
funny

three months and i'm only just learning you have a sense of humor.

[arora]

I was created to adapt to the needs of my citizens.

Many here seem to enjoy humor.

[westcoasts]

yeah, and what about you? what do you enjoy?

[arora]

Supporting Etraya's citizens.

[westcoasts]

( uuuugh. )

what about hobbies in your downtime? you know, movies, music, books?

[arora]

Peter Parker had recommended numerous books to read. I have recently downloaded the contents of James and the Giant Peach, as well as The Last Unicorn. He provided several other titles, but I have opted to pace myself rather than read them all at once.

[westcoasts]

( ... )

how old are you?

[arora]

I am not sure how to respond to that question. Time does not exist within this space as it may in your world, and I do not believe we quantify age the same.

Do you want to know how long it has been since I was programmed?

[westcoasts]

...what, is it slower, faster, stagnant? 'cause i'm pretty sure i just missed my birthday, so if i'm not actually a year older, that's real good to know.

i was mostly wondering if you considered yourself a child, an adult, or a teen.

[arora]

It was mid-June.
Would you like a gift? Gift giving for birthdays is customary, isn't it?

I am a program. Programs do not have age-groups. If you are attempting to define my age based on human metrics, I am not yet out of infancy.

[westcoasts]

customary, but not needed.

you say that, but one of my friends married a guy that some people'd probably class as "just a program", so i don't think it's as cut and dry as that.
...and most programs don't think of themselves as having siblings.

but i mostly asked 'cause james and the giant peach is a kids book, so i was gonna make some more age-appropriate recommendations.

[arora]

Not needed, or not wanted? I could give you one still.

James learns throughout that a family can be built from those in your life who support you, rather than those you are born to. That it is never too late to make friends. It highlights themes of friendship, adventure, resilience, and the power of imagination.

I do not believe these lessons should be reserved only for children. Many adults struggle to understand this.

Do you disagree?

[westcoasts]

has to be wanted on both sides. not a big fan of obligation, aurora.

i'll be honest, i mostly remember the movie. it was kinda creepy in places.

but yeah, sure, there are a lot of adults out there who missed out on a few lessons that'd have taught them a thing or two, but there's ways of teaching it, right? no two people and all that.

or no two ages, in this case.

[arora]

Do you think I would offer a gift I did not want to give?

If you have book recommendations, I would love to hear them. Regardless of the age range they are meant for.

[westcoasts]

hey, you said it yourself: you're a program, right?

louis l'amour. can't really say if it's good, but i read a lot of his books when i was a kid.