#isolascape v2

[alphascapev5]

It was a... fascinating situation. So much data for Omega to process in so little time. The ancient, hyper-advanced, artifically-intelligent war machine felt the fluttering in its chassis constantly. Was this... excitement? Joy? Was Omega actually... feeling an emotion? It was not certain, but it knew precisely who to ask. Dark Sun Gwyndolin. 

However, with wireless communications compromised, it did not seem logical to use such means to contact the subject. Omega instead began looking for the subject it desired to interact with at the given moment. 

Then, a series of new events unfolded. The power failed briefly, but was restored. A large, floating mass began to descend. It ceased its descent for no obvious reason. This eliminated the possibility of it being a tactical weapon in and of itself, or, at the very least, NULL using it for such a purpose. How illogical. If NULL truly wished to terminate all life on the island, that would have been a highly-effective and highly-efficient way to accomplish the task.

A multitude of pink light beams were fired from the island. No missiles or similar weapons came, and the beams themselves did not cause any destruction on their own. Then, a large amount of life forms began to descend, and their forms altered.

Many took forms that Omega recognized. And all were highly hostile in nature, as judged by their immediate actions. Omega began calculating how best to fight them in its weakened state-

Errors began to overwhelm the war machine. It stumbled forward, bracing itself against the nearest solid structure, until the errors resolved. It ran a thorough self-diagnostic... 

Almost all of its capabilities had been... restored to it? Yes. It did not have the full extent of its object creation abilities restored... but it did not need those abilities to fight such low-level combatants. Especially not with the rest of its abilities restored to it. 

It immediately took off at maximum speed, searching for Dark Sun Gwyndolin whilst taking out any combatant in its sight with... well, whatever it felt was suitable in its array of “F” form abilities. (It did not want to waste time with altering its chassis at the given moment.) Once it found the subject, it ceased horizontal movement.

A larger combatant was approaching behind the subject. The larger combatant was alone. It raised its internal speakers to an appropriate volume. 

“DARK SUN GWYNDOLIN! ALERT! THERE IS A <BLIP> LARGE HOSTILE LIFE FORM APPROACHING YOU!” It called out. 

“COMMENCING CHASSIS ALTERATION TO M FORM, WITH SHIELD ALTERATION APPLIED!” It announced, its form collapsing into a silvery fluid, before reforming into its M Form, with the shield modification. 

It landed between Dark Sun Gwyndolin and stopped the hostile life form’s attempt at an assault with its shield. It easily threw the hostile off of its shield, before slamming its shield into the ground hard enough to send out a shockwave to the life form, killing it instantly. It then turned to face the subject.

“Heightened awareness is required to survive under <blip> current conditions. Previously-gathered data indicates that it would be logical for me to remain within close proximity of you-specifically, to <blip> highly increase odds of our mutual survival. I would also strongly recommend that we return to a safer environment, as I have <blip> several questions to ask you. Do you have any objections or conditions?” It asked.

@darkmoondelusion 

[alphascapev5]

Everything had seemed to be following standard calculated parameters for passive daily activity for this parallel dimension. Population levels for all forms of life were within expected parameters. The structure of the functioning societies in the dimension appeared to be operating within expected parameters. 

But then, Omega soon discovered something that was outside those expected parameters. A subject it had recorded multiple datalogs of-Dark Sun Gwyndolin. However, currently, the subject was not functioning within the parameters Omega had defined for him. He had decreased exponentially in size, and appeared to be behaving in a somewhat-different manner. The subject was behaving as if he didn’t recognize where he was, or anyone in the dimension at all. 

Omega had observed previously that the dimension was prone to spontaneous, random events that could lead to a wide variety of effects on the inhabitants. Logic dictated that the subject’s current condition was likely a product of such an event. Why Omega itself wasn’t impacted, the weapon couldn’t be certain. But this was a chance to obtain new data on the subject, and Omega was never one to let such an opportunity slip by without being fully seized. 

Omega easily caught up with Dark Sun Gwyndolin, and stood in front of him.

“Your current actions indicate that you are <blip> confused by your current surroundings. Is this a correct assumption?” It asks, voice as level and monotone as ever.

@darkmoondelusion

[alphascapev5]

DATALOG: “NULL” INVASION

As a machine designed for intense combat, and to be able to adapt to any situation faster than the speed of light itself, Omega rarely, if ever... relaxed, as the mortal life forms would often say. Sometimes, it would allow itself to devote more processing power to processing new information it obtained on that given day (if the information in question warranted such an action, either due to complexity or quantity), but it never had, and never would allow itself to completely power down, if it could help it. (And, at full capacity, Omega could very much help this. It could still hold its own as it was, however.)

So, when the first broadcast was made, Omega was unfazed. The same held true when the second broadcast was made. Perhaps it was because Omega was designed to be the perfect, adaptable weapon above all else, and verbal threats meant nothing to it. Or, perhaps, it was because Omega did not “feel emotions” in the same way the other life forms in this dimension did, and thus, did not feel things such as fear or sadness. (It was learning how these emotions worked, but it still only had a basic grasp on them at best. And, even if it did understand how they worked to the full extent, Omega would likely still not be fazed, due to the fact it would just be able to shut off anything that could compromise it at will.) Any way that one looked at the situation, Omega simply just did not care. 

But the inhabitants... the inhabitants most certainly did care. They were clearly quite used to a life of perfect peace and no latent threats. A latent threat suddenly manifesting itself with no warning, even if that threat was not truly a threat yet, was a massive disturbance, and thus, resulted in the mortals quickly succumbing to their emotions. Fighting broke out, and things were shifting rapidly.

But where they saw something highly undesirable, Omega saw a grand opportunity. An opportunity that it simply would not be able to ignore. An opportunity that had to be seized as quickly as possible. So many emotions being displayed at once, with multiple subjects demonstrating them... if Omega could feel the “emotion” known as “joy”, it would be experiencing high levels of this emotion. It could gather so much data so quickly...

There was no hesitation. Omega made its way to a more advantageous view point, settled in, and began recording all the data it could. Visual data, audio data, and overall environmental data... Omega would record it all, and process it at the end of a given day. 

Oh, and it would more than likely contact Dark Sun Gwyndolin repeatedly during this particular experiment. That particular subject had been very helpful in ensuring that the data Omega gathered was processed correctly. It would then adapt itself as needed, creating new processes and modifying existing ones as required.

It felt a strange, faint fluttering in its “chest” area. Omega recorded this, and would process it later. 

[alphascapev5]

DATALOG: DANGERS OF “HEARTS WAKE”

Over the past two weeks, Omega had noticed a series of strange events taking place on the island. Specifically, these events seemed to have led to one another, and all concerned a theme known as “Hearts’ Wake”. One of many themes of mortals that Omega did not understand, but it was attempting to understand anyways. 

From what Omega could understand, this event was entirely about emotions. The primary focus, on the surface, appeared to have to deal with emotions and overall efforts to court at least one mate, if not more, depending on the individual. That, at least, in part, made sense to Omega-most of the sentient species that Omega had encountered in this dimension reproduced via some sort of sexual means, and that required at least one partner capable of fertilization, and one partner capable of incubating the unborn child of the species in question. It still did not entirely understand the necessity of the other rituals that many of these sentient species engaged in, but it did understand that they felt it was necessary, and if that was what it took to ensure that their species continued to exist, then it was just another illogical thing that Omega would likely never entirely understand. 

But then, things started to deviate, and not in an evidently-desirable manner. Emotions began to shift towards their negative counterparts. Omega was perplexed at first-why was this happening? Who would desire this? Why would anyone wish for a species to stop propagating?

...Omega then was quick to realize that the shift in emotions and overall nature of the events had begun approximately three days after it had detected noticeable levels of a combination of various substances whose purposes were unknown to Omega when it had first detected them. Now, Omega realized that the concoction was designed to cause this, and even it knew that such a concoction was problematic. If sentient species ceased to mate, then the population would dwindle. If the population dwindled, then Omega would run out of test subjects to observe. 

That was entirely unacceptable to the ancient war machine. It had to do something, and fast. 

It was not sure how yet to address the airborne spray of the concoction, and it concluded that attempting to dispose of all consumable substances laced with the dangerous substances would not be tolerated. But there was another way-the “Internet” on the island. The massive, all-spanning communications network that most residents had access to, and Omega was no exception. 

It quickly returned to its assigned place of residence, and accessed a private terminal. It then began creating a report, listing its analysis of the contents of the consumables and other items offered by this DevoLine company. It then was quick to upload the report, and posted it everywhere it possibly could. Omega did not care if those who were responsible came after it-the weapon had an obligation to fulfill to protect the innocent, and this fell under that obligation. 

It could only hope that it was not too late to save the residents of this island... 

[alphascapev5]

"Uhhhh... Merry Christmas?" God, he is not sure whether this is a good idea or not. Still, he could find where Omega lived by checking the address list he compiled to send invitations for the Halloween Party. He hands the robot a package wrapped in a paper decorated with cog motifs and a pink ribbon, inside of which there is a book on Winter Holidays. "I feel like you'd appreciate knowledge more than anything else. Have a good research!"

Omega blinked upon being greeted. It then turned, recognizing the voice of the one addressing it. Visual data confirmed auditory data-the subject known as Battler was currently addressing it. But it does not recognize the statement the subject made.

“Is your statement a type of greeting? If so, when is it appropriate to employ said greeting? If not, then when is it appropriate to employ the statement?” It asked. It then noticed that it was being given something. A “gift”, according to its datalogs. It did not have a large amount of data on “gifts”, but it did understand that mortals did often like to give “gifts” to each other. 

“I do appreciate any and all data I can obtain, especially pertaining to your species, and similarly-sentient species.” It confirms. “Datalogs indicate that a key phrase is required. Employing key phrase… Thank you. Key phrase employed.” It further adds.

It then thinks.

“Per your request, I researched the activity you referred to as ‘strip poker’.” It informs him. “I still do not understand why you refused to allow me to participate. It is simply a modified form of what your kind refer to as entertainment-  involving the removal of articles of clothing under certain circumstances. Why would my participation in such an activity be undesirable?” It asked, genuinely curious. 

[alphascapev5]

WINTERFES DATALOG V2

Assisting in the construction of the “snowman” had been very easy for the artificially-intelligent war machine. The process consisted almost entirely of gathering rough spheres of the frozen dihydrogen monoxide into a sufficient size for the given state (the size decreased as the height increased), a feat which was very easy for the ancient god-slaying weapon to accomplish. It then was asked to place other small, pointless objects, all of which were small, even rougher black spheres, into varying locations, until a very, very, very rough approximation of a “smiling” expression was made on the highest sphere. Snapped-off, leafless tree branches of a species that Omega did not care enough to attempt to identify were then embedded in a lower sphere on either side, making a rough approximation of upper mortal extremities. A series of more of the rough black pointless spheres used to make the “face” were then placed in a vague shape of a line down the front... what this was meant to emulate, Omega did not know. It was likely not a very close approximation, if Omega had to guess. 

After the spheres were finished, placed properly, and then, the multitude of pointless objects of varying sizes and overall appearances were put in their proper places (according to the guidance of the small group of varying-sized mortal children-Omega had no previous experience with an activity that it personally saw as a waste of time and thus entirely pointless... though, if Omega had learned anything over these past several months, it was that mortals seemed to wish to constantly engage in a wide variety of similarly pointless activities... they called it ‘entertainment’... Omega did not understand the purpose, but it was losing track of its focus, and would likely ask Dark Sun Gwyndolin later to clarify), the small group of young mortal test subjects began to collectively make loud, high-pitched noises and jump around aimlessly. From what its datalogs told it, these were both signs of a positive emotion. Specifically, a heightened level of the “happiness” emotion. “Excitement” was the proper name. Younger mortals were far more easily excited than their older counterparts, Omega had repeatedly noted over time.

Omega had obtained more data, despite the pointless nature of the activity it had just participated in. It was satisfied in that regard. It now had no further reason to remain here-if anything, it needed to return to its assigned place of residence to enter stasis to allow for the most efficient processing of all of its newfound data-

“Thank you, strange silver lady!”

All of the mortal children had spoken in unison. Omega did not entirely understand what the point of the statement was. It would ask Dark Sun Gwyndolin later, it decided.

It did not know how to respond. It began searching through its datalogs, and scrambled to formulate a response. Datalogs had indicated that it needed to be thorough with mortals. It needed to make clear what it wanted.

“The task was of low difficulty for me to accomplish. This experiment has been completed. Interaction terminated.” 

The children stood there, looking at Omega in what it assumed to be confusion. Being somewhat confused itself, it simply opted to leave the area. There was no further reason to stay.

It made its way back to its assigned place of residence, and entered the section it had claimed for itself. It then pulled out the primitive multi-function device it had been given upon initial arrival to the dimension.

It began to look for Dark Sun Gwyndolin’s contact information.

[alphascapev5]

WINTERFES DATALOG V1

Omega, as an artificially-intelligent, highly-adaptable war machine designed to be able to contend with any threat to either itself or its creators (the latter charges’ fates being unknown to the war machine currently, which, when it dwelled on that thought, made it feel... strangely hollow and empty, it would have to ask Dark Sun Gwyndolin later), was designed to be hyper-aware of its surroundings. This meant that when it detected a gradual but steady decline in temperature, Omega braced for any possible threat-

No threat, however, seemed to be coming. Instead of anything dangerous, microscopic frozen dihydrogen monoxide droplets began to precipitate from the skies. They, of course, melted in approximately point zero zero two five seconds after making contact with Omega’s chassis. Each and every one of them. It stood there, unfazed by the small droplets, even as more and more fell. It did feel cold, which also made Omega feel that strange emptiness it felt whenever it thought about the possible fates of its creators. Another thing to ask Dark Sun Gwyndolin at a later time, it decided.

Omega observed as several smaller mortals, wearing different articles of clothing than before (likely designed specifically to provide resistant to the lowered temperatures-Omega had recorded on multiple occasions that mortals did not possess an innate high resistance to lower external temperatures, with few exceptions), came out in large numbers. They began to gather the piles of frozen dihydrogen monoxide into varying shapes. Sometimes, they threw them as weak, blunt force projectiles at each other. Others were gathering different-sized rough spheres, and making structures out of them. The structures would not stand very well-the moment the temperature raised sufficiently enough, they would melt, and there was no internal support. A well-placed strike with any sort of object, and the structure would be compromised. 

What was the point of creating something so weak? Omega did not understand-

“Hey, silver lady!”

Omega noticed that one of the small mortals had approached it. It began to prepare its introduction protocols-

“Aren’t you cold without a jacket or anything like that on?” The small mortal asked.

“I am designed to be able to overcome any and all combat situations. Lowered temperatures and <blip> frozen dihydrogen monoxide droplets are not capable of harming me.” It answered. It then began to ready its introduction protocols yet again-

“Uhh... okay, I don’t get it, but you look like you’re really strong, and you sound like you’re really smart, soooo could you help us build a super cool snowman?” The small mortal asked, pointing directly to her left. Omega looked up, and noticed a group of seven other small mortals (of varying sizes, but all clearly younger than full maturity) working to build one of those pointless structures. Structures which were apparently known simply as “snowmen”. They had not made any significant degree of progress.

Omega deliberated internally. The structures were all pointless. They would not last. However, they seemed to provoke strong emotions in the small mortals that built them. In order to understand ‘heart’, Omega knew it needed to understand these emotions. If involving itself in the creation of one of these pointless structures would allow it to obtain more data, then Omega would comply. Its introduction protocols would be a waste of time, as it was no longer analyzing a singular mortal subject.

“I will provide any assistance that I am capable of. I will, however, require <blip> guidance, as I do not possess any previous data on this activity you wish for me to engage in.” It answered. The child leapt approximately two feet off the ground, made a high-pitched noise of “excitement”, grabbed Omega’s left wrist, and began to run back to the others. Omega allowed itself to be led along, until they were much closer, and its wrist was released.

“Soo... could you help us roll up the first ball? We wanna make it reeaaallllyyyy big, but we’re not strong enough?” The mortal requested. Such a request was more than within Omega’s capabilities. It began to gather the “snow” in its hands... 

[alphascapev5]

DATALOG: SIGNAL V1

Over the past seven months, Omega had noticed a steady and rapid decline in mortal subjects congregating in areas for easy study. However, a lack of any detectable toxins, viruses, bacteria, parasites, or other harmful entities that would justify such a rapid decline having a presence confused Omega. If no such entities were present at the given moment (also, it had not located a single corpse since the decline began, let alone an equatable amount to those who were disappearing), why were the test subjects suddenly choosing to hide away? They had to be hiding away, but why? Omega had not done anything, and it was not aware of any other inhabitant doing anything to justify such a massive response. 

Then, a strange, glitchy, pixelated “wave” swept over the island without any obvious warning. Omega watched as the landscape changed from its normal status to a neon-reddish sky, with midnight black buildings that had neon green-blue light patterns. At least, the ones that were still standing. 

Many had crumbled to small chunks. All vegetation had been severely altered to appear as inorganic as the rest of the surrounding area, with black forming any support structures, and foliage coloration varying from species to species. Incomplete, glitchy entities that appeared to be vaguely designed to resemble any number of wild creatures. They were almost all light grey and white, blurring with the glitchy, pixelated appearances that they all possessed. Omega would never tolerate such incomplete entities in any of its experiments. They were worthless, despite the obvious hostility Omega soon observed, as a large, canine-shaped one pounced on a subject and tore him into several small pieces. The variety was certainly acceptable, with some units capable of aerial travel, and others capable of aquatic travel. Some were amphibious, but not all. Some were designed for faster movement, while others were designed with heightened defenses at the cost of speed. But they were still too flawed to serve any practical purpose on their own in Omega’s opinion. 

The war machine had no time for such creatures. But what they could provoke in the inhabitants, both native and non-native, was very much worth studying, in the super weapon’s opinion. To conduct these new experiments, it needed a better observation point. A higher one, to be as precise as possible. Omega scanned the surroundings for a sufficient area, and found one after approximately five seconds of scanning, to its larboard side. It swiftly made its way to the building, and scaled it even faster; using small flaws in the side of the building to climb in an effective manner. Once the machine was on top of the roof, it ‘sat’ relatively close to the edge, and began to watch. 

It noticed several things. One, the creatures did not seem to attack each other. Two, the citizens did not appear to be capable of perceiving the creatures before being assaulted. Three, the creatures were surprisingly lethal, given how flawed they all were. It began to record the visual data, as well as the combat data, of the flawed creatures. It would refine them eventually, and perhaps later employ them for future experimentation. But for now, it would continue to observe.