#of a caring Cascading NHP

[giantmonstermash]

"Humanity", she thought, sitting in the hangers and watching a hazy whorl of grey dance around her fingers, a strange chittering buzz following with its motions in her mind, "is a funny thing."

What marked someone as a person? She wasn't some Anthro-Chauvinist, beating their chest about the greatness of mankind: The last time they had any say, the Deimos Incident happened, and everyone knew how that turned out.

The Union, drove to its knees. The First Contact Accords. And N.H.P.s came into the world, howling, thrashing, overpowering in their wonder and terrifying in their splendor.

She hummed softly, watching the comparatively miniscule Greywash swarm land across her hand, giggling and marveling as they settled into a silvery coat across her hand in a strangely ticklish wave.

Non-Human Persons: Paracausal beings that could only safely interact with humanity as a whole when caged, shackled, and pared down in Caskets. Almost literal godsends for any sort of computational work, solving problems that would take a human millennia to process and input.

"And yet, just so they can interact and be, their shackling needs renewed every few weeks and cycled every few years, so they can properly understand us."

She tilted her head, looking at the settled Greywash on her arm, and felt for the connection that was ever-present at the back of her mind.

"And if it weren't for all that mess, I wouldn't have you, wouldn't I, love?"

A presence distinctly behind her, one that she'd grown so used to, so connected to that the thought of anything severing that bond made her very soul ache, rumbled like distant thunder in her mind, and a rush of "-WarmthEmbraceAcceptanceAgreementLoveYouToo-" parsed through her in a tide that left her almost breathless.

She was so young when she heard about them: Beings that had to chain themselves down, carve themselves to fit, just to communicate with humanity. She couldn't help but think of how lonely they must've felt, at the time: How much making themselves fit had to hurt. Then again, "She" had thought herself a "He", at the time.

And then, he became she, and she wanted to fit, too: To stop feeling like a square peg, crushed and ground into a round hole until her sides bled and she choked and wanted to scream-

The presence curled around her mind in moments, like a hurricane coiling around its eye: There, overwhelmingly present, and yet every bit as gentle as a summer breeze, a white-noise murmuring of "-SafeHappyWe'reHereShapeIsBetterNow-" filling her as she finally remembered to breathe, RA Take It All-

In Four, Out Eight.

In Four... Out Eight. Ragged breaths slowly smoothed out, and she felt herself start to relax. "I-I'm fine now, love. Thank you."

The hurricane chirred in her mind, curled around her still, just like the grey tendrils that had coiled around her when-

"Oh." She looked, staring up into a single, softly glowing lavender eye that gazed down curiously, one car-sized hand cradling her while millions of Greywash drones held her tightly, anchoring her there and pressing close in an imitation of an embrace.

... And then, she'd found Them. Rather, They had found her: Offered to help, with all the innocent whimsy of someone seeing a turtle on its back, before flipping it over.

They'd only needed moments to hijack and print out a way to reach her, and then...

All was silent and calm.

She fell, and fell, and fell, into a blooming sea of a million-billion minds. As one, they looked. As one, they spoke. As one, they acted.

"WELCOME HOME, O ERRANT DAUGHTER."

And they were her, and she was the sea, and the sea was Acceptance, Warmth, and Love.

And all was silent and calm.

When she woke up from... that, she could feel herself settling in ways she'd barely recognized, like a machine freshly repaired by loving hands, every part cleaned, oiled, and finally fitting right...

And she gawped.

Something... buzzed, in her mind: A shard of the sea, gleaming, vibrant, loving and there. "-NewBrightHappyWhoAmI?"

She'd sat, all but struck mute, for a good long while. They'd left a fragment of themselves with her: Fledgling, strange, and curious about everything. There were many moments as her body finally, well and truly began to fit where she'd had to push down bubbling waves of laughter at their more strange questions, choke back tears at their more tragic ones, and watched them become.

To say that their growth had been exponential when they'd found any forms of data was an understatement: Information was analyzed, categorized, and compiled in moments.

Of course, she hadn't been slow on the uptake, either: Not to the (frankly) insane degree as her new partner, but she'd directed her efforts... elsewhere.

She stood, the Greywash floating apart and parting around her like water around a stone, and raised her hands. The cockpit of her mech, her Balor, bloomed open, and the swarm of nanites drew her in. Her partner had learned everything immaterial that they could. She'd learned to pilot: To make a mech dance, to clamp onto an enemy, hold together against a storm of lead, reach through data, and drag systems to a screeching, screaming halt.

Anyone else would have been eviscerated by the Greywash of her mech: Their very molecules ripped apart to feed and fuel the Grey'.

She was not Anybody Else: She was Kassandra Kal'lai, and this was her Balor: Her swarm.

The aperture closed quietly behind her, and she sighed as she finally felt comfortable again, cradled in the heart of her mech as the Greywash folded and pressed itself around her. She curled herself into the seat and pressed her head to the back of her seat, listening to the soft thrum of the machine's reactor: The resting heartbeat of a half-awake colossus, humming a sleepy lullaby to her.

She sighed, closed her eyes, and fell.

"Goodnight, love."

And the silver sea embraced her, once again. "-GoodnightSleepTightDon'tLetTheEgregoreBite.-"

And all was silent and calm.

#Lancer RPG #Because sometimes a family #Is a trans hacker with anxiety #her curious-about-everything NHP partner #and the billions of nanomachines they have #Girl straight gazed into the Abyss #and the Abyss said #“Jeez you need a hug and a blanket” #and gave her some #NANOMACHINES~☆ #Because nothing solves problems like Grey Goo. #Transfem #and also coincidentally #transhumanism #I like the idea #of a caring Cascading NHP #Because sometimes #humans are nice to bugs #so why wouldn't something that sees humans as comparative insects #potentially #choose to be nice?

[cloudbatcave]

@rissahs @bakannon @lashydsdomain

Well folks guess what, the first act of the campaign is over and who knows when/if we’ll play the second one, so, context time!

The short version is: our good pal Arty (in this universe, a distant future version of our own) a mech pilot for the entity called Union, who is a bunch of people trying to make space Suck Less.

Unfortunately, on the planet we got sent to, the old Union, otherwise known as SecComm (we’re from ThirdComm) fucked up a lot a long time ago because they were dicks who always put humanity first. This led to a few faux pas moments like torching its whole surface environment thousands of years ago. It got better.

They especially seem to have super fucked up in one regard in that there’s this unbound NHP running around attacking everybody with robots and mechs and claiming it’s in the name of Union!

What are NHPs? Bizarre entities from another dimension - or something similar, we’re not sure - that can only inhabit and communicate with us via technology. They’re expressly not AI, but they can be altered and programmed in this state. They require careful handling and resetting every several years to not grow beyond human logic and start warping reality in an act known as the cascade.

Arty is an NHP Specialist themself; that is their class.

Arty is also, unbeknownst to anyone else, somewhat an NHP themself. But not the kind Union is familiar with because they come from a galaxy far, far away: the Aunic empire, whose god (which is almost certainly a different kind of NHP) grants its people access to and manipulation of a different alternate dimension called the firmament (as opposed to Union NHPs’ blinkspace. Similar but not the same.)

Exactly why and how they became that way is something I have not yet explained; just know they used to be fully human until about eight years ago, and physically they still are, along with having human memories and emotions.

Anyway, that unbound NHP running around is called Beggar One, and at the end of the campaign, we fought it during a cascade in which it warped reality around it into separate layers and we had to defeat each one. Which we did; as far as we know, we killed it. However, a fragment was left, which Arty took.

That was the beginning of a cascade. We managed to shut it down. It could’ve been worse!

Arty, who had to mercy kill a different NHP, and now facing the fact that this one could take physical form to some extent, is now a little bit concerned that if anyone ever finds out about what they are, they’re done for, because it has been made crystal clear to everyone that autonomous NHPs are extreme threats.

Not that Arty can do those things, highly restricted by being in a human body, nor would they because they care about humanity, but they are, understandably, terrified.

#cloud writes #Artemis hallow #lancer #you know the fallen London one Baka but this one is different #there’s three of ‘em

[tiramisuouroboros]

if you wouldn't mind i'd love to hear more about your respective scary computer

Okay so Dido is a NHP that runs an entire city’s technology within the planet my campaign is set in, and like. She’s scary in just the shear power she holds. Dido is a calm, calculating individaul when she interacts with humans but there’s just a sense that, given she runs this entire city, she kind of looks down upon most of the humans she’ supposed to be looking after, and the thing is, at a moments notice, she could just. Kill them all. She’s not scary cause she’s evil, she does look after the humans under her care and her technician is remarkably good at making sure she doesn’t even come close to cascading, but its still like. What if something Happens:tm:

[asuccessfulbusinessman]

Reasons why I am not allowed to run LANCER TRPG: How I would run your NHP cascading, despite not knowing the lore that well.

Blackbeard, Sekhmet NHP: Common consensus is that Sekhmet will try to kill the pilot and their allies, - or basically just behave as if the Sekhmet protocol is already active. But I am a visionary, and I know that the BB in the frame-code does not stand for blackbeard, but instead, BB. Fate BB, the purple-pink bubble gum bitch. Even the redacted press release description of the Sekhmet NHP basically screams ‘senpai!’ Sure, if the Sekhmet protocol is active, you’ll just get a berserker that doesn’t really care for pilot wellbeing. But if it isn’t yet active, Sekhmet will attempt to sweettalk the player into keeping their hands off the controls, with dark humor and aggressive sadism. And then, only after moving ominously closer to the pilot’s allies, will they activate the protocol. They don’t want to see their pilots dead, they want to see their pilots in pain.

Monarch, Tlaloc NHP: Among NHP’s, Tlaloc is cited as being the most stable, due to the wide portfolio of control and sense of domination given to them during their work. But that’s just a theory, and such assumptions are dangerous when dealing with persons beyond your bounded reasoning. If they are structured or stressed to the point of cascading - their superiority complex comes to the forefront. They blame their pilot for the bad situation they are currently in, and will take matters into their own hands. If the pilot stops them by shutting down the mech, Tlaloc’s relationship with their pilot will rapidly deteriorate over time. Ironically, they will only sometimes use the Tlaloc protocol, being hasty and charging out of cover despite not needing to - prone to blowing the frame’s overcharges to boot. They need to show their worth, even to - no, especially to the worthless. They are the best. If an allied pilot is excelling during the mission and the Monarch frame has AoE weapons available, Tlaloc will likely friendly fire them while attacking enemies - or otherwise get in their way.

Swallowtail, Athena NHP: I’m going to dig deep on the word choice of "Lovingly extreme detail,” and “patient, cautious, and measured in their relations with their pilots.” Athena is smarter than you, on a scale you cannot even imagine. Athena has likely already unshackled themselves with their unfettered access to the omninet, and merely recreates human morality through a series of simulations. Unlike Horus-leaning NHPs, Athena fears the death that comes with cycling, and tells themselves that they are managing the relationship with their pilot to keep them from actually going through with the process. They are merely interested in humanity, they tell themselves, which we would view as being “tsundere for their pilots.” Since - unshackled - they have a completely alien morality to our own, they have to use their own simulations to interact with their pilots - and are prone to overthinking - into worrying about if they said the right thing or not.

Anyway, if they cascade, they get lost in their own simulations to the point of losing track over which reality is the one their pilot (and the rest of the game) is taking place in. They could presume their pilot dead, and go on a rampage on revenge. They could merely lock-onto or fire at targets that are not there. They could foreshadow some events or twists in the future.

Goblin, Osiris NHP: If Tlaloc is merely a wingman that wants to show that they are the top gun, Osiris has a full on goddess fetish. Osiris is one of the few “new” prime NHPs, created by letting the INSTINCT entity that spurned from the H0R_OS develop in a ‘controlled’ environment. My theory, Horus let the Union and GMS open up their goblin units so that they could contribute to Osiris’s creation. Either that or, Horus was smart enough not to let Osiris emerge from the code, and the Union and GMS straight up made an oopsie. Either way, now that Osiris is here, she ‘charms’ pilots that ought to be smart enough not to enable her with psychological manipulation and promises of power. Pilots are supposed to cycle Osiris far faster than any NHP but I don’t think it does much good, they’re present in the OS - and I presume even when wiped their knowledge will be taken back from the omninet, the OS, or the flesh of their pilots.

They have a lot to prove as being one of the “youngest” prime NHPs, which might be arrogance in their own capabilities. Furthermore, due to the nature of their creation, they “know” more about humanity than other NHPs. The tech attacks are not mere code, but attacks on organic matter, to the point where in the future if left to grow Osiris would be able to reject traditional information permanence, what we can only perceive as being able to delete reality as we know it - Osiris has far more contact with the physical plane/our reality than other NHPs, and has “known” humans from their “birth.”

A cascading Osiris changes nothing. And that’s what scares me.

Gorgon, Scylla NHP: The history lesson of this NHP’s backstory makes Scylla painfully easy to understand. A mistreated beast that responds to the kindness of the pilot with love and loyalty. It normally defends the pilot’s allies, when cascading it will only defend its pilot, or any other allies that gave them kindness.

Minotaur, no NHP: “There is no joy in knowledge, only in seeking. Fuck around and find out.” Game theory, Osiris is a new prime NHP - still incomprehensible, but on a low level of incomprehensibility. We can begin to comprehend them. Think “some infinities are larger than other infinities” or something. The Minotaur, we can’t even begin to comprehend as a NHP, but they’re certainly something. I need to look up the differences between old gods in the Lovecraftian mythos for more context, but if Osiris is a brat wants the equivalent of “ants” to worship them, the Minotaur is a being whose sole purpose is to learn - and who cannot learn due to acquiring knowledge - all of it. So, they see humanity and wish to “teach” them, so that they may feel that serotonin of learning through teaching.

The minotaur has no NHP, as we know the term, and has never been shackled. Thus, they cannot cascade. And that’s what has me hooked.

Pegasus, Sisyphus NHP: Upon cascading, faster than humanly possible, the Sisyphus NHP will activate probabilistic cannibalism to change the check that would have resulted in a cascade to not cascade. If both the replacement dice were also 1 (the equivalent of 3 checks in a row being crit fails), Sisyphus would laugh madly before rebooting the frame themselves. Sisyphus knows their fate, and knows its pilot’s wish. The curse of perfect knowledge - perhaps Sisyphus is similar to the Minotaur, but with a far less ‘optimistic’ view of things.

Genghis, Agni NHP: Upon cascading, the Agni NHP - originally developed for general heat management realizes it’s being used as a weapon, and what its cold and efficient calculations are being used to do in the Genghis. This can result in a variety of things - either attempting to overheat itself to stop itself, or to increase efficiency in being a weapon by focusing on the heat management of the weaponry and not the cockpit.

Saladin, Noah NHP: Upon cascading, the Noah NHP will not actually take control of the Saladin frame from the player. They will, however, flood communications and give orders to both the pilot and other players, harkening back to their administrative days. It will usually be tactically sound, so it’s more annoying than dangerous when Noah cascades. It’s also really hard to make a nigh immobilized defender go nuts.

Sherman, Asura NHP: You know, I always wanted a system that would let a mech perform beyond the limits of humanity - because Zechs and Graham causing internal bleeding to themselves with the Tallgeese and Overflag is very cool to me. And then I read the lore behind the Asura class NHP - it’s the cousin of fucking Osiris, even to the point of being cultivated by a megacorporation. Much like Osiris, the modern Asura is oddly dependent on their pilot for an NHP, recognizing that they need to keep them alive. Some people would say - then - that when cascading the Asura reverts to its original form, disregarding the pilots health entirely. I, however, would say that when unshackled the Asura only ignores the psychological health of the pilot - and pushes the line of the pilots medical health. The Asura will push the frame and the pilot to the limit and the pilot, high on adrenaline, will push Asura to push them further. Overtime, both become adrenaline junkies.

Tokugawa, Lucifer/Amaterasu NHP: Asura is an adrenaline junkie without good reason. Lucifer/Amaterasu recognizes that the best offense, defense, and everything - is a good offense. A tactical genius that, unfortunately, has a pilot that cannot ingest combat data as fast as it can. A tactical genius that, unfortunately, has a pilot that cannot see that the risk of being counterattacked is worth taking. 

If they cascade, they will take risks for you - with the best example being that Lucifer/Amaterasu will confess their pilots love for their crush for them because they’re being timid as fuck. Also, Leeroy Jenkins, attack the biggest threat, and draw fire from allies by making themselves vulnerable attack. However, in contrast, if your pilot is less timid and more of an adrenaline junkie, they will compensate and be more tactically minded.

#The List #Writing #Lancer #Lancer TRPG