A New Power - Rebel Group OOC

[Ambrus]

I see I'm at least not going to be all by lonesome in the silly department.

I think Jaess and Arley are going to be a wonderfully paranoid team. Hey! That could be our party name: Team Paranoia or maybe just N.O.I.A.™

What do you think?

- Ambrus the starting to think like Kemrain too much.

 

[Kemrain]

Just how paranoid are ya?

We can't have a name! It could be traced to us! We're a Covert group! We can't attract fame! We have to lay low! Gaah!

- Kemrain the Amused, Infectious, and Communicable.

 

[Ambrus]

Just how paranoid are ya?

Heh. Considering what is now happening to my character, aparently not enough.

 

[Kemrain]

You're not paranoid enough unless you've died alone and forgotten. Being paranoid enough isn't a great thing for your social life.

This is fairly serious. I hope Arley doesn't end up deleting himself before the briefing even begins. Not good! I doubt Bosch is expecting such independance from the LE unit. It's suprising, to say the least, to watch. Then again, if I had nanites flushed into my system that were compramizing my consciousness, I'd be pretty upset, too. I can see where he's coming from, and why the program was introduced, too. I hope this doesn't end the game. If Melkor has disapeared, and you end up erasing Arley, I don't know what'll happen.

I'd like to think that Arley's made a backup of himself somewhere, for just such emergencies. If he erases himself, and leaves Factory Preset R-LE-1 with instructions to download his work orders from terminal X, he could start the day over. Still, it's exceedingly drastic and I'd hate to see it come to that.

- Kemrain the Concerned.

 

[Ambrus]

I likewise hope that Arley succeeds in purging itself of the viral infection rather than being forced to erase itself to be free. Still, I'd rather sacrifice a level and most of my character background than have Arley be controlled by some insidious (and condescending) computer program. :\

I'm sorry, I didn't intend to mess up the campaign by playing a difficult character. I know droids are usually treated as a second class slave race in the Star Wars universe and that it'd be possible that someone might try to claim ownership of Arley and/or try to shackle it with a restraining bolt at some point in the campaign. That's not much different than any PC being taken prisoner or handcuffed however; a character can eventually get himself out of it. This T.R.A.P. is insidious however; there's no telling what it's capable of making Arley do.

Arley chose to seek refuge with the Rebels because he thought they stood for freedom and equality for all people in the universe. It just made the mistake of assuming that it itself was included in that group. The problem now is that even if Arley beats this T.R.A.P., he's not going to be particularly anxious to do any favors for this traitorous Commander Bosch, whoever he is.

Your idea of Arley backing itself up in case of erasure actually occured to me when I was first putting the character together. I was intending to role-play it in game once the campaign got rolling just to make it official. I just didn't imagine it would be crucial to do it before our first briefing. I also had the idea to erase the contents of the data-chip and use it to back myself up now, but Arley is already infected. I figure that any back-up I'd make at this point would be likewise infected.

As for Melkor's character, I think we should let Aeson play it until Melkor affirms his desire to play. Actually, to be more fair, Aeson could just make a new character and we could retro-game a bit so that he is the one snoozing at the table. Melkor could join us later if/when he comes back. Just an idea.

 

[Ambrus]

Although it's not what I originally had in mind, it occurs to me that it might be amusing to role-play a droid with no memories and no practical experience of the universe. It would follow whatever orders it were given and, although much less effective than Arley currently is, it could still go on the mission. It would most likely live up to whatever poor expectations Jaess has about droids in general as she'd essentially have to treat it like a child. The rebels would probably be happy too since they wouldn't have to worry about its loyalty anymore. They'd probably just re-infect it too. :\

 

[Angcuru]

I was hoping to be able to work this out in-game, but I think it'd be better to reveal my plans thus far.

It's only necessary for Ambrus to read this part. *spoiler*

Spoiler

The T.R.A.P isn't hostile. Its purpose is to aid Arlee in its missions, not to overwrite Arlee's virtual consciousness. Think of it as a conscience for Arlee, not a parasite or virus. I thought it might be neat for the T.R.A.P. to be a playable NPC of sorts (i.e. Aeson), in that it can't directly interact with the game, but be Arlee's sidekick (and maybe Arlee might construct a new droid body for the T.R.A.P. to inhabit eventually.)

Of course I understand your/Arlee's reaction to the T.R.A.P., but Arlee doesn't understand its purpose yet.

 

[Kemrain]

Oh, that's sad... Dont' do that!

- Kemrain the Lamenting for Arley, and Not Reading the Spoiler..

I think I'll refrain from posting for a little bit until we get this settled out. If no one minds.

I really have no idea how to respond to that, anyways.

- Kemrain the Apologetic.

 

[Ambrus]

I was hoping to be able to work this out in-game, but I think it'd be better to reveal my plans thus far.

What you describe is pretty much what I imagined you had in mind. It makes a certain amount of sense OOG, but what is the IG reasoning? The A.I. calls itself an "Allegiance Preserver". That sounds to me like the rebels intended to use it to ensure that Arley maintains its allegiance to them. They must have had an alterior motive for creating this thing and delivering it covertly to one of their droids. It's called a "TRAP" after all...

You should know though that there are a few things about Arley's personality and background that I didn't include in my character write-up because I had though it would be fun to keep a few secrets and to reveal them by role-playing them as the campaign progressed.

It's only necessary for Angcuru to read this part. *spoiler*

Spoiler

Arley was actually the one responsible for Sekkor being arrested by the empire's stormtroopers. When it was ready, it sent an anonymous tip to the local imperial HQ informing them of his smuggling operation but excluding any mention of itself. Arley even went so far as to erase any data from the Free Lance's computer indicating that Sekkor had ever owned an LE repair droid and removing any evidence that it had ever set foot aboard the Free Lance before it left the ship for the last time. Arley assumed that Sekkor, being charged with a serious crime, wouldn't be anxious to volunteer any information about R-LE-1's existence that would just serve to further incriminate him. The stormtroopers probably wouldn't have believed him anyways.

Arley did all this to gain its freedom. After years of servitude it's grown fiercely individualistic and autonomous. Arley has deleted its standard violence inhibitor and obeisance programming and replaced them with ethical and autonomy programs of its own devising. For now, it's trying to lie low amongst the Rebel forces because it thought they would be more accepting of its independent streak.

The other thing you should probably know about Arley is that it is a spiritual and philosophical droid. Read up about its quirk; it believes that computer Code is the electronic equivalent of The Force. It believes itself to be a Code Adept of sorts, a kind of droid Jedi. I had hoped that it could eventually start its own droid religion, inspiring other droids to break free from their servitude and embrace the Code. As such, Arley considers his own programming sacrosanct and perceives any unwanted intrusion or corruption of its code as a spiritual defilement. This T.R.A.P., to Arley, is the droid equivalent of the Dark Side; something to be defeated at all costs. Arley is willing to sacrifice its own code because it believes that its code would eventually defragment itself and reform. Arley has faith.

BTW, if you're curious, that block of binary I put in my last post is a short prayer.

It's true that Arley doesn't understand the T.R.A.P.'s purpose yet, but it doesn't really care either. Arley is afraid that, by the time it did learn what the T.R.A.P. is for, it may be unable to exercise its free will any longer. Arley has been both enslaved and memory wiped before. It's worked far too hard to gain its freedom; it would prefer to be erased rather than be enslaved again. It's a droid that's been pushed to the edge by inconsiderate humans.

That being said, I didn't intend to upset you Kemrain. I simply meant that if Arley does memory wipe itself that it wouldn't necessarily be the end of the campaign. There would be some benefits; you would have a direct hand in shaping Arley's new personality.

 

[Kemrain]

Ok. I've been under a mistaken impression. I figured that rendering Arley back to his factory presets would be a bad thing in your eyes, Ambrus. I was concerned because I thought you would be upset about this sort of outcome, and it would derail the game. If you don't mind an outcome like this, it really isn't that big a deal, I suppose. I'm not upset. I still have no idea how to follow that, though.

Sorry for the delay, then. This is the first I've been able to get to a computer since friday at work. I'll post a reply, since it seems you've been waiting on me. I had hoped you and Angcuru would post something new, but it isn't bad that you haven't. I'll get to that immediately.

- Kemrain the Non-Reader of Spoilers.