week 1 - katara - friday post-investigation

[completelycrazy]

[It's later in the evening when Newt doubles back to check on Katara. He's made his rounds and had some time to calm himself down... Here's hoping she has, too. He knocks on the door of her hut.]

Katara? You around?

Comments

[seaclipsed]

[ she is, indeed, around. thankfully her roommate isn't, or else this conversation would be a lot more awkward. inuyasha is not the most sensitive person around.

katara will walk over and open the door. ]

... Hi, Newt.

[completelycrazy]

Hey. [He gives her a smile. She seems calmer, which is good.]

How're you feeling?

[Physically, mentally, existentially...]

[seaclipsed]

Terrible. [ she's honest.

she'll also hold the door open for him to come inside. momo the lemur is hopping around on a bed, most likely hers. ]

But I've managed not to hit any robots today.

[completelycrazy]

[He appreciates the honesty.

Hold up, though!]

Whoa, what's that? [Newt is 100% gonna try to pet Momo...] Hey there, little dude!

[He'll remember that they're playing a murdergame on a desert island eventually.]

[seaclipsed]

Oh. Momo, this is Newt. Newt, meet Momo.

[ momo makes a little chattering noise before hopping closer to newt. he's curious and unaware of murders. ]

[completelycrazy]

[Momo is good and pure and Newt already likes him very much. He reaches to scratch Momo's lil noggin. What an awesome distraction. He loves having an mp3 player here, but a fun animal companion would've been pretty nice, too.]

He's cute. He's yours from back home? What is he?

[because he doesn't look like a lemur that newt is familiar with idt???]

[seaclipsed]

He's a flying lemur.

[ momo is a completely normal lemur, of course. ]

He's not really mine... he's more of a member of our group in general, I guess?

[completelycrazy]

He can fly? [Sorry, Momo, he's invading your personal space to check for wings. Biology!!!!]

Huh. That's awesome.

[But, okay, onto business:]

Nice work avoiding the robot-hitting. You want to, uh, talk it out or something? [He is very good at social situations that involve comforting.]

[seaclipsed]

If we're going to congratulate anyone for avoiding robot hitting it should be you, since you're the reason I didn't hit them.

[ she fully intended on doing it until newt swooped in, after all. ]

[completelycrazy]

That was for your benefit, not theirs. Trust me, I'd like to see both of them broken down for scrap, but I don't think that's going to help anything. Messing with them is just going to piss them off, and then they're going to take it out on us.

[seaclipsed]

Or maybe they'll learn their lesson and leave us alone?

[ she doesn't actually sound like she believes that'll happen, but she can dream. ]

[completelycrazy]

[He laughs a little. He wishes, too.]

The thing about robots is that they're pretty bad at learning from experience. Their program would need to be updated in order to truly learn something. Granted, AIs might be different, but it's tough to say without knowing their coding.

[He doesn't actually know all that much about robotics, if he's being honest.]

[seaclipsed]

Hiro said something similar to that earlier. He's a really smart kid.

[ katara you're literally the same age as him. ]

But what you're saying basically is that the chances of them changing their ways are slim.

[completelycrazy]

Hiro's the resident expert on robotics, really. I know enough to get by, but biology is my expertise.

[It's a high compliment coming from him. He likes Hiro.]

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. They aren't likely to change unless whoever's programmed them decides to change the coding. Sorry. I think we're stuck with these jerks.

[seaclipsed]

Ugh. For now.

[ she says that, but she's aware that overthrowing the robot overlords will be pretty difficult when none of them have powers. so she just looks really grumpy about it. ]

[completelycrazy]

For now. [He nods. Sorry, Katara.]

But hey! That might change. We have no way of knowing, really.

[seaclipsed]

That's true. It seems like it would be hard to predict this kind of thing.

[ which is also a bad thing. ]

[completelycrazy]

Exactly. So, the way I see it, we just need to focus on the information we're working with in the moment. Trying to stay one step ahead when we don't have hardly any data is just going to confuse the issue.

[seaclipsed]

That's true... and if we keep trying to solve things that we have no idea about, then we might end up missing what's already right here.

[completelycrazy]

[He nods.] Yep. Occam's razor, and all. This situation is complex enough as it is, and whoever's behind it all likely wouldn't risk overcomplicating things.

[seaclipsed]

[ who the fuck is occam ]

[completelycrazy]

[...]

It just means that the simplest explanation is often the most viable.

[seaclipsed]

Oh! Okay, yeah, I agree.

[ stop making references that go over her head. ]

[completelycrazy]

Cool. [no???] So, you're good? You're not gonna go beating up on any robots without me?

[He tries to say it as lightheartedly as possible, but also: do not.]

[seaclipsed]

I don't want to make any promises, but I'll do my best to behave.

[ then two weeks later she goes and has one arm. ]

[completelycrazy]

[He snorts.] Don't look at it as behaving. It's more like you're biding your time. Strategizing so you can hit 'em where it hurts later, y'know?

[seaclipsed]

The problem with that is the longer we wait, the more people die.

[ katara has always been the kind of person who reacts to things immediately. ]

[completelycrazy]

[He's quiet for a moment. She has a point.]

Well, all the more reason to strike smart. If we're gonna be reckless, we need to make sure it has a chance of paying off.

[seaclipsed]

[ she nods in agreement. ]

Right. We wouldn't wanted to come out completely empty handed.

[ ha ha get it ]