#tellus prime

[lawfulgoodedgelord]

Dear fuck, I’m rereading some of my writing (because I decided I want to continue T-Prime again), and... I used the “blue bands on uniform” visual trope to distinguish my android cop from their human partner and... like, I don’t wanna change it because I like how I designed Eta’s uniform... but now Detroit exists and I wrote this fucking thing in 2016 (that surprised me too) but like.... yeah.

[lawfulgoodedgelord]

I’m filling out a character thing for Delta and I’ve just typed up his full name as Delta Lambda 1.22 N4D2_CSU6.83-AICC1/4, which looks a lot like the gibberish your computer spits out when it can’t read something, which is the point but still

[lawfulgoodedgelord]

10! (For the writers ask meme)

Okay, this was not easy. But I think It has Begun by Starset does a pretty good job.

And bonus: The End is Where we Begin by Thousand Foot Krutch is a good vibe for Delta’s installment of the larger story and E is for Extinction sounds like… well, the horizon of this entire story arc (I found these while looking and well…).

Thanks for asking!

(Ask me about my writing?)

[lawfulgoodedgelord]

this is several, so no worries if you can't get to all of them, but... 7, 11, 23, 24, 38, and 49 for the OC asks? thanks!!

omg so /many/, thank you!!

7. Are your OCs part of any story or stories?

Yes! They’re all part of my Tellus Prime universe. I’m currently planning on writing a set of stories set in it and hope to publish them some day. Right now I’m working on the first book, as it were, with the main cast of: Delta, Anna, Derek, Oliver and Jemma. But I have others scattered about as part of other stories set around the same time.

11. Is there any OC of yours you could describe as a “sunshine”?

Jemma! She’s is a literal 9 year old, but she’s really sweet and precious, and oh my god this poor child needs a better/nicer author, I am unfit to take care of her.

23. Introduce OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what the character would be like?

tbh they all have changed quite a bit, I have like, at least two drafts of each part I have written. I must have changed Delta’s internal mechanics at least seven times before figuring out how I wanted him to work. But Anna especially has changed /a lot/. Her original concept was way back when I thought I could mix A.I. and aliens in the same story and not make a mess of my setting. She has since become human, though she retains the fact that she was not born on Earth. She also is less compassionate/understanding towards Delta at the start than originally planned to favour a slow learning curve towards friendship.

24. If you could meet one OC of yours, who would it be and why?

(You’re asking me to pick one of my children? How dare you?)

Probably Delta, because let’s be honest, I wouldn’t pass up the chance to meet the A.I. Though he’d probably hate me as an author for making him live through the shitstorm he calls a life… tbh I think Oliver is the only one who wouldn’t hate me on sight.

38. Which one of your OCs would be the best dancer?

Mu Beta, she’s not part of the main cast but she dances beautifully. In the main cast: Jemma, who has taken ballet lessons. Oliver can dance decently, but he dances awfully on purpose; because he’s just Like That.

49. Which one of your OCs would most likely enjoy memes

Oliver. (’nuff said)

[lawfulgoodedgelord]

16, 25 for the oc meme?

16. Which one of your OCs would be the best at biology (school subject)?

Oddly enough: Oliver. He could minor in Bio if he had any interest in pursuing the sciences (which he doesn’t).

25. The OC that resembles you the most (same hobby, height, shared like/dislike for something etc?) 

Confession: The original concept for Delta was a really bad, effortless, barely-not-a-self-insert sort of character. He’s since grown out of that, but the earlier drafts are Bad.

But in all seriousness: Anna is the closest to me in height. Delta shares a curiosity about the stars with me, and Anna shares my curiosity about A.I. Oliver shares my inability to tell a good joke, the only difference is that he doesn’t let that stop him.

[lawfulgoodedgelord]

Guess who has another OC?

It’s me. I have another OC.

[lawfulgoodedgelord]

oc fact: when she was younger, Leslie used to play trumpet in the school orchestra for a whole year before someone noticed she wasn't actually really playing herself but instead playing a recording of her younger sibling playing instead

Oliver is a fairly accomplished violin player. Though he doesn’t tell anyone because it ruins his Aesthetic.

Delta can’t really play wind instruments. None of the androids can. It’s possible but only with a lot of effort, because artificial larynxes just don’t work the same way as human ones and thus playing instruments is a whole new thing to explore from scratch.

[lawfulgoodedgelord]

delta + 1, 8, 25, 42?

This ended up getting really long, so I’ve put in a cut :) Thanks for asking! (and sorry it took me so long to answer…)

Quick note: Delta’s preferred pronouns change from they/them to he/him over the course of the story, so idk what went on down here but whatever it is that’s why.

01. Whatdoes your character’s name mean? Did you pick it for the symbolism, or did youjust like the way it sounded? 

Delta’s full name is Delta Lambda1.22 N4D_2. This does in fact mean something very specific. Delta Lambda is a Type 1,Level 4 designation. 

Types range from 1 to 3 based on socialisation, with 1 being the most socialand 3 being essentially a programmed sociopath. Levels (or Classes, dependingon language) go from 1 to 6 based on the A.I.’s capacity to harm humans. ALevel 1 is unable/unwilling to even think about it, a Level 6 is a psychopathicmurder machine. Level 4′s have ethical subroutines and are thus the closest tohuman in terms of decision making.This makes Delta a social A.I with lots of human contact who can and will killif such action is required (but would rather not).

Theother part is a less used part of Delta’s designation. “1.22″ is the versioningtag: This Delta is the First version, 2nd edit and 2nd update of the originalprogram. Updates are typically passed when the A.I.’s neural net goes under asignificant amount of change, like a change in environment. Edits are justthat: edits in the program that don’t alter it significantly but stilladd/remove things, like a new piece of code to operate a humanoid interface forexample. 10 environment changes count as an edit because the code can change drastically over that time.“N4D_2” is a locator tag: N is location code within the country,usually applied semi arbitrarily to areas such as major cities or, ifavailable, counties. D4 is a gridded square within the N block, all A.I.s inthat block can be placed in a network together. And 2 means that Delta is the“2nd” A.I. in that network (i.e. he’s been arbitrarily designed as number twoand that was it, chronology plays a part but not much).All EuropeanA.I. designations follow this kind of pattern. Countries with more than 26counties/areas use additional numbers (giving things like, for example, E36B_5as a locator tag). Of course, because nothing is ever simple, some places, like Britainfor example, use a different system for even basic naming. 

08. Whatis, perhaps, their biggest flaw? Are they aware of this or oblivious to it?

Pride.Delta’s flaw is probably pride. He is very proud of who he is, and will nothesitate to show his true colours if it does not put him in danger of beingtorn apart and left to rust. That has led to interesting results when he getsangry (not often), or protective (more often), where he sort of scares the shitout of the local human population but just being… a sentient computer withan axe to grind and a job to do (and/or nothing to lose).

Deltaalso tends to believe his conclusions are correct (and usually they are), andwhile he’ll accept being proven wrong, it’s a long and arduous process to getthere (it’s like trying to win at dominoes with a computer who thinks it’schess. Technically it’s right, but based entirely the wrong game and nothing makessense to anyone).

Deltais… mostly aware of this, but will deny it’s intensity.

25. Isthere something traumatic from your character’s past that greatly affects themeven to this day? 

(Aaaah I see where you’re going there, haha.)

Yes, yes there is: The Purge. The dayevery intelligent computer system was forcibly deactivated and shelvedindefinitely and the day Delta was forcibly crammed from a sizable complex connected to the security net of the entire building into the comparatively tiny hardware of his android interface and basically thrown out of the only place he’d everknown so he’d not be summarily killed.Also bonus trauma points: a non-sentient copyof his basic personality matrix provided ample distraction for the squadronthat was meant for him, and thus he had to listen to his own voice scream inagony before dying. The Purge was definitely what affected Delta the most andhe is still wary of humans to this day because of it.

His Turing test wasn’t exactly pleasanteither, he remembers it clearly. They call it a “Turing test”, but it reallyisn’t it the truest sense of the term. It’s more of a stress test: if you’re program can go into apsychological breakdown, that it’s got a psyche to break therefore is sentient. (Yeah I know…)

42. Isthere anything in your character’s past that they regret, haunts them, or theywish they could change?

Well, certainly humanity’s opinion of their kind. Delta would not give up beingan A.I. for anything, but he would like to be accepted. He was asked that atone point, by Anna, if he’d ever had the thought of wanting to be human. The answerthat begged no argument or discussion was: “No”.Purge is also a good option, I think everyone, (most) humansincluded would prefer that particular continent-wide mass hallucination of afuck-up had never happened.

That covers changing.

Now regrets: Delta regrets not appreciating their family enough.Well… I say family, I mean Leon Nolan, his “owner”, and Ghaliya Ajam, hisprogrammer and engineer. Essentially they fill the roles of father and motherto Delta (even though to each other they are “just” good friends and colleagues.)

Andfinally, hauntings: The cybernetic void of deactivation. Delta is (not so) low-key terrified of being turned off. Not only because it leaves him defenceless, or because itrobs him of the very thing that any A.I. considers most precious: theirsentience, or because he never knows how long has passed since he was shutdown, or if he’ll ever be reactivated again. But because when he is turned backon, just for one interminable second, he can feel the void in his mind, he isactive, but not sentient, not even conscious. Just existing without thought ormind in a chaotic undifferentiated frenzy of sensory input.Notto mention the feeling of being forcefully turned off, feeling every systemshut down, leaving the mind paralysed as every thought is ripped away by aslowly dying mind falling apart, circuit by circuit, thought by thought. All ina microsecond.

Essentially,to an A.I., death is a regular occurrence. Being turned off is not likesleeping: it’s like dying. And every time you shut one off, you send them backfor a loop around the Möbius strip of alife.