Mirroring Situations Like You're An ImitationDo I Watch And Repeat?And As If I Tried To, I Turned Out

Mirroring situations like you're an imitation Do I watch and repeat? And as if I tried to, I turned out just like you Do we watch and repeat?

DATA + spacescape

orionthayer:

“Thanks for the statistical analysis. And the IBM - can’t make it a mile without it.” Pressing their lips together, Orion rather reluctantly took the IBM from his hand, unsure of how they felt about encountering him here. Or really, anywhere. From the beginning, Orion hadn’t quite understood them - the one anomaly among the crew, the only one with a tin heart that hadn’t replaced a beating one. Less than a human, he didn’t quite lay claim to robot either. Perhaps he copied them too finely, able to mimic their emotions and actions down to a t. Whether that was intentional, or a flaw in his code, Orion had yet to discover. Either way, in the dim light, the fake smile excepted, he appeared to be almost human. A bit of a tragedy. Quickly squashing the sentimental sympathy, Orion pushed the IBM into their pocket, wondering what would happen now. 

Then, furrowing their eyebrows, their hand instinctively went to the soul in their neck - the one that had long felt redundant, given the anonymous lifestyle they had been blessed with living. “How did you find me? Don’t tell me you’ve got a stalker setting.” Although their words came out a little too crudely to be taken as a joke, Orion quickly chewed down on their lip - feeling a little guilty. I shouldn’t be so hard with my words. Then again, was he even capable of feeling hurt? Although no scientist or engineer, Orion was eager to find out. “Because then I’d have to toss water on your motherboard.” Ah fuck - didn’t look like they would be getting much information gathering done - not when they weren’t sure if they could trust him. It was messed up, how a group of people could spend six months together and yet be entirely uncertain of each other.

A look of confusion furrowed his brow as he stared at the human before him. “You made it many miles into the city without your IBM.” Despite the constant interaction with those he was so desperate to imitate, DATA still found himself unable to grasp the carefully crafted notions that were embedded in the language and social structures of the human race. His expression did not waver – in contrast, it seemed to grow in intensity - as Orion continued to speak in colloquialisms that DATA had yet to comprehend. He did not believe they truly intended to cause harm by ‘throwing water on his motherboard,’ as if Theon had not already engaged the precautionary protection of ensuring his circuits were designed to prevent water from interrupting his basic function. Instead, he reasoned, such an expression of ill intention must be akin to that of a jest; although, DATA had yet to understand the context in which the threat of harm would be humorous.

Their words, paired with an anxious countenance embodied in bitten lips and a restless gaze, evoked an uncommon feeling of shame. He had obviously done something to unsettle his fellow crew member. Fingers wrapped together in an unconscious movement of apprehension over his own actions. Perhaps he should not have attempted to return their communication device; perhaps he had misread the complex social cues that still awarded him frustrating complications by attempting to engage in their communal relationship outside the steel barriers of the ship. “I apologize if my company has persecuted you with unwanted attention,” he said, referencing the definition of the new addition to his vocabulary. “I merely followed your biological signature in order to successfully deliver your communication device.”

Team 1, RIP

Augustus: Not that I'm supporting anyone being used as a human shield, but isn't he made of metal?

Augustus: Much better shield material. Over.

DATA: Perhaps we should attempt to negotiate with them instead of initially engaging in violence. Over.

Pyre: Violence will only be used if necessary, and we will use no member of the crew as a shield.

Pyre: Marrow said we need to keep the comms to only pertinent, mission-related information. Over.

DATA: Thank you, Pyre.

DATA: Has your mood improved from the melancholy you were previously engaged in over Eretria? Over.

ervtreia:

With Theon’s final word, her gaze couldn’t help but search for DATA from across the room. It was impulsive, anything but clinical in its attempt to find a reflexion. The android remained undaunted, staring at the screen while the image faded. The interviews had been rough on everyone; she could easily attest to that, her heart still beating faster than normal after she left the room on the screen. It was daunting to know everyone was now aware of your darkest, deepest, greatest secrets, the pain you tried so hard to mask, the memories you tried to never remember. But it was more than that: the questions and the forced answers were a realization that everyone on board had a past and that pasts rarely remain where they belong.

Eretreia’s gaze dwelled on DATA, the robotic semblance he always carried shifted and cracked, a single flash of what looked like pain cross his eyes before it disappeared again, carried away with him leaving the room. The room was silent, as it had been for the past couple of hours, the tension thickening, close to suffocating. She followed him out of the room, hastening her steps to catch up to him. “DATA!”

Androids can’t actually feel human emotions. The meaning of that knowledge was often lost on Eretreia. She knew the specifics, the coding and the format, how androids were built, not born, how their mechanical hearts didn’t pulse with blood and their behaviour should be the result of flawed learning experiences; while she was never before in the presence of another android, it felt like nothing of it mattered. DATA was a being, if not human – something more. A machine with human behaviour would, inevitably, become one itself.

She finally reached him, stopping just a few feet away to catch a breath. She thought about asking “How are you feeling?” but she knew what the response would be: a formulated, automatic answer that told her he couldn’t feel. She didn’t want to hear it, whether because she didn’t believe it or because she was afraid the answer would be completely different from what she was expecting. Instead, she reached out to his hand and stroke it, softly, before wrapping his body in a hug.

“It’s alright,” she meant it and although it was a very human caprice to assume other people would understand what remained unspoken, she despairingly hoped that he would.

The echoing call of his name, wrapped in the familiar inflections of good intentions, forced his previously stressed footsteps to stumble to a sudden halt. Fighting the desperate urge to flee, to run from the demons nipping at his heels under the guise of genuine emotions, DATA turned to face the oncoming storm presented in the nimble frame of one of the few people he could label as a friend.

Brown eyes became obscured by the brief embrace of lashes as DATA relished in the gentle caress of fingertips tracing over the unblemished, synthetic skin of his mechanical knuckles. The gesture, something as simple as touch, provided DATA with a calmness only previously felt by in the reassuring presence of his creator. A golden halo of hair, a dimpled smile of joy, and the gentle dance of calloused fingers across his stitched skin had always been sourced of comfort; but now, in the distorted light flashing red, red, red, red, green, DATA knew that any gentle gesture garnered from the man he dared to trust unconditionally would result in a despondent reflection of his own ignorance.

Eretreia’s touch, so blessedly different from that he had grown used to in the self-indulged isolation he fell into by Theon’s side, provided the soothing nurture needed to inspire a vulnerability DATA had never allowed himself. He was helpless as his expression morphed into an expected heartbreak, the swirling sadness of tragedy and despair wrapping together in a lover's embrace across the broken countenance.

Folded into the foreign comfort of a hug, hesitant hands followed the known mechanics blueprinting the correct movements to engage in a suitable response as he allowed his first feelings of despair to overwhelm him. With arms wrapped around the lithe frame exuding waves of reassurance, DATA felt pinpricks of tears threaten to flood his eyes. Confusion, briefly felt at the emergence of the automatic response from the artificial nervous system that spanned through his body, only served to escalate the already overwhelming sensations echoing through his mind. What purpose would surrendering control over a useless lacrimal apparatus serve for an android? Why would Theon subject him to the humiliation of obtaining the ability to cry?

Burying his face within the soft cotton sheltering Eretria’s shoulder, DATA attempted to allow the empty words to ease him into a false comfort. He understood how humans were expected to feel when administered placating words of consolation; yet, the desperate feelings accompanying his sorrow did not dwindle. “I preferred apathy to this.” His voice was fragile beneath the heavy weight of his heartbreak. “I don’t like it.” Rattling breath, harsh against the raw emotion clogging his throat, fell from his lips in a fruitless attempt to regulate the unneeded breath filling his lungs. “How do you do this every day? How do you humans feel this all the time?”

radio call: open frequency

DATA:DATA present and uninjured.

Kallia: Marro-- doesn't nee-- more disappointing news, DATA.

DATA: --o need to be unkind, Kallia.