Of course! I know how to fight hand-to-hand, and we're pretty close to the same size. Shouldn't be too hard to teach you a few things.
[Things like dodging properly and learning how to take hits and other fine tricks for Not Getting Concussed In The Middle Of A Battlefield. Hey, he never said this offer didn't have hidden motivations.]
[Don't mind him, he's just lighting up like the Fourth of July.]
Really? That's great! [Or, you know. Terrible. Either Hiro's going to come in with a decent base to work off of or Megaman's going to be breaking a lot of bad habits. Or an unholy mix of both. It could easily go either way, so he's taking the optimistic route. Because Plucky Shonen Hero.] Once you're out, you can show me what you know and we'll work from there. We'll just have to find a good place to practice.
[In that case Hiro is going to learn a great many things. Which may well include multiple variations on getting forcibly introduced to safety mats, who knows.]
I just hope I haven't gotten too rusty. Been a while since I've really had a chance to use what I know.
[His expression flickers briefly at that, a blink-and-you'll-miss-it change. He misses netbattling, he misses Lan, but. Hiro needs him right now. Gotta focus on Hiro.]
[If Hiro wants to not be a giant mass of bruises and shame then he'll just have to learn fast.]
Well, not all the time. But I am a combat spec, and protecting systems from viruses is one of a navi's basic functions, so I do fight quite a lot. Besides, we didn't become the number one netbattlers in Akihara by just sitting around.
[And there it is again. His smile fades, just for a moment, only this time he sounds a little distant when he speaks, as well. When did it get so hard to ignore that his brother wasn't here...?
No, not now. He can do better than this - he needs to do better.
[HE WILL STILL TRY VALIANTLY TO REPRESS ALL HIS PROBLEMS TO FOCUS ON HIRO'S OKAY. Witness as he smiles in a way that is totally not at all forced in the slightest, why would you ever think that.]
Yeah, me and Lan. My operator. I wouldn't be nearly as good in a netbattle without him. Wouldn't be much of anything, really.
[He opens his mouth to say something else - can't think of anything - closes it, and sighs. This. Is very much not the way he expected this conversation to go. It actually surprises him enough to drop the act, at least for the moment.
[HE DAMN WELL BETTER BE OR SOMEONE'S GETTING SHOT.
Megaman knows his brother's okay - dad said so when he'd 'rescued' him, said Lan needed a navi so he could start sixth grade. He'd been asleep when they'd gotten home, so he hadn't had a chance to talk to him, but. Lan was there. His baby brother was okay.
(One of the Hikari twins has an obituary and a grave, but it isn't Lan)]
[He does not understand your priorities here at ALL, Hiro.]
No, no, it's okay, I just-- [THE BIGGEST OF SIGHS. What is this conversation becoming he can't even.]
Hiro, I'm upset because he isn't here, that's all. It's...I've been with him since we were five. I can't remember ever being away from him for more than a few hours at most. The longest we've ever been separated was for four months, but I was offline the whole time.
[ He nods a bit, going quiet again as he thinks. ]
I know no one can replace him, but ... You've made friends, right? I mean - there's gotta people plenty of people out there who'd jump at having a Navi buddy.
[Ordinarily Megaman's pretty outgoing - he can make friends pretty much anywhere. Here, though...he's mostly been focused on just trying to get through this. It's only temporary, after all, and he'll be back home with Lan soon enough. Right?
Even so, he can't exactly say "no" to that, because...]
Well, there's you. [He even smiles a little bit, at that.] Still, there's a big difference between a friend and an operator. Especially for a navi like me - I was made specifically for Lan, in a big way. Nobody else could ever come close. We just wouldn't be compatible.
[Oh, he sees that flicker, and it's simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking.]
Well, for most navis it mostly comes down to personalities. If a navi and a human get along, and their personalities mesh, and the navi likes them and trusts them enough? They can make that human their operator. It works the other way, too - if a navi doesn't like or doesn't get along with their operator, they can leave them and find a new one. Navis really only ever have one operator at a time, but sometimes we'll let another human...substitute, I guess, if we get along well enough and the situation requires it.
As for me...
[There's a long pause as he looks down, obviously debating something. When he finally glances up again he's obviously a little nervous.]
[ Hiro tries very hard not to look too excited at the prospect of a secret. Or the prospect of ... well, being an operator. He's a little more fascinated by the concept than he is by Megaman specifically - ah, that's not fair, is it. A brief but guilty wince as the thought passes across his mind. ]
Remember how I said I have unique programming? Well. When dad made me...
[He might not need oxygen in the cyber world, but he sure does look like he just took a deep breath. He can do this. He can.]
...when he made me, he was working on a project at the labs. A big one, genuine Sci-Labs deal - government funding, government oversight, the works. They were working on a technique for coding and generating navis that they hoped would make us more human-like. A way for us to have a...a "seed" personality on start-up, instead of being a complete blank slate, one that would hopefully be guaranteed to mesh with our operators'.
They did that by generating the navi's frame, the personality data, the core programming, almost everything with...with a digitized sample of the intended operator's DNA.
Lan and I have identical genomes, yes-- [Not a lie!] --but I'm not "based" on anyone. I'm as much my own person as any other navi, I just...happen to have human DNA.
[Sorry, Hiro, he's. A little touchy about the personhood thing. He's Lan's twin, not his clone, dammit.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
microbrobotics) wrote2025-01-08 05:19 pm
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[Things like dodging properly and learning how to take hits and other fine tricks for Not Getting Concussed In The Middle Of A Battlefield. Hey, he never said this offer didn't have hidden motivations.]
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Really? That's great! [Or, you know. Terrible. Either Hiro's going to come in with a decent base to work off of or Megaman's going to be breaking a lot of bad habits. Or an unholy mix of both. It could easily go either way, so he's taking the optimistic route.
Because Plucky Shonen Hero.] Once you're out, you can show me what you know and we'll work from there. We'll just have to find a good place to practice.no subject
Okay, deal. We'll figure it out.
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I just hope I haven't gotten too rusty. Been a while since I've really had a chance to use what I know.
[His expression flickers briefly at that, a blink-and-you'll-miss-it change. He misses netbattling, he misses Lan, but. Hiro needs him right now. Gotta focus on Hiro.]
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... Used to doing it all the time then?
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Well, not all the time. But I am a combat spec, and protecting systems from viruses is one of a navi's basic functions, so I do fight quite a lot. Besides, we didn't become the number one netbattlers in Akihara by just sitting around.
[And there it is again. His smile fades, just for a moment, only this time he sounds a little distant when he speaks, as well. When did it get so hard to ignore that his brother wasn't here...?
No, not now. He can do better than this - he needs to do better.
Focus on Hiro. Hiro is more important.]
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"We"?
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Yeah, me and Lan. My operator. I wouldn't be nearly as good in a netbattle without him. Wouldn't be much of anything, really.
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But he's not here, is he?
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[He opens his mouth to say something else - can't think of anything - closes it, and sighs. This. Is very much not the way he expected this conversation to go. It actually surprises him enough to drop the act, at least for the moment.
He looks so lost.]
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He's ... alive back home, right?
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[
HE DAMN WELL BETTER BE OR SOMEONE'S GETTING SHOT.Megaman knows his brother's okay - dad said so when he'd 'rescued' him, said Lan needed a navi so he could start sixth grade. He'd been asleep when they'd gotten home, so he hadn't had a chance to talk to him, but. Lan was there. His baby brother was okay.
(One of the Hikari twins has an obituary and a grave, but it isn't Lan)]
Why would you even ask that?
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I'm really glad he's okay!
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No, no, it's okay, I just-- [THE BIGGEST OF SIGHS. What is this conversation becoming he can't even.]
Hiro, I'm upset because he isn't here, that's all. It's...I've been with him since we were five. I can't remember ever being away from him for more than a few hours at most. The longest we've ever been separated was for four months, but I was offline the whole time.
...well, the longest before I came here, anyway.
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How long here?
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I know no one can replace him, but ... You've made friends, right? I mean - there's gotta people plenty of people out there who'd jump at having a Navi buddy.
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Even so, he can't exactly say "no" to that, because...]
Well, there's you. [He even smiles a little bit, at that.] Still, there's a big difference between a friend and an operator. Especially for a navi like me - I was made specifically for Lan, in a big way. Nobody else could ever come close. We just wouldn't be compatible.
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[ There's a flicker of interest. ]
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Well, for most navis it mostly comes down to personalities. If a navi and a human get along, and their personalities mesh, and the navi likes them and trusts them enough? They can make that human their operator. It works the other way, too - if a navi doesn't like or doesn't get along with their operator, they can leave them and find a new one. Navis really only ever have one operator at a time, but sometimes we'll let another human...substitute, I guess, if we get along well enough and the situation requires it.
As for me...
[There's a long pause as he looks down, obviously debating something. When he finally glances up again he's obviously a little nervous.]
...Hiro, can you keep a secret?
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Yeah. Yeah, definitely. What is it?
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[He might not need oxygen in the cyber world, but he sure does look like he just took a deep breath. He can do this. He can.]
...when he made me, he was working on a project at the labs. A big one, genuine Sci-Labs deal - government funding, government oversight, the works. They were working on a technique for coding and generating navis that they hoped would make us more human-like. A way for us to have a...a "seed" personality on start-up, instead of being a complete blank slate, one that would hopefully be guaranteed to mesh with our operators'.
They did that by generating the navi's frame, the personality data, the core programming, almost everything with...with a digitized sample of the intended operator's DNA.
...I was the only one that worked.
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So - you're based on a person? You've got your operator's DNA?
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[Sorry, Hiro, he's. A little touchy about the personhood thing. He's Lan's twin, not his clone, dammit.]
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