Thread: A.I. (Artificial Idol) Project [Kaen Lazuli & tiger_lily]

Hazy. Blurry. Vague. Indistinct. These were all words that came to mind when Nova contemplated this new mode of existence. Three weeks of adjusting to this new body had not removed the frustration of these low-resolution senses. The doctors had assured her that the sensory organs were operating at peak human performance, but she still could not count the number of people in the concert hall. She could not even make out any distinct conversation from below the VIP-seats no matter how much she focused. Focused, that was another thing that was unfamiliar. When she was running on ProCom's servers, she would merely allocate a set of subroutines to solve a given task. Or perhaps this was just how it felt when an organic brain allocated subroutines to a problem? It was rather finite after all. Finitude... Yes, that was a fitting word. Miss Nova? The stone-faced bodyguard beside her asked. Ah, no. Nothing. I was just, ah, what is the phrase? Thinking out loud? she placed a finger on her chin in thought. Humans often did that, so it seemed appropriate. Understood miss Nova. Thinking out loud? Why had her speech center relayed that word to her vocal cords? There were so many odd quirks with this new body. But she had after all asked to be made in the likeness of her makers, so that she might better fulfill her function as an idol. Or had she even asked? She was under the notion that her will was free, but that might be a part of her programming. It certainly wouldn't be outside the scope of ProCom's business model according to her analysis. The thought actually made the hairs on her neck stand up, another unfamiliar quirk of her vessel. No, she had to stop thinking of it as a vessel. It was her now, and she was it. Conjoined. Made flesh. She looked down on her gloved hands, stirring a little in her seat. She had still not gotten used to the tactile senses of her fingertips, so she wore elbow gloves to help cope with the unpleasantness. Wearing a simple black dress for the occasion, Nova looked exactly like the avatar she presented when she performed as the sentient program, the one-of-a-kind Artificial Idol. Her body stood 1.7641 meters tall after a sleep cycle, and weighed 66.431 kilograms averaged over the day. She had a light skin color, blonde shoulder-length hair and lime-green eyes. This shade of green was outside the normal human color spectrum, as was the shape of her ears which were elongated with pointy tips. Almost like the mythological elves from various stories. She was of course tailored to look beautiful to almost all demographics in the solar system, placing her facial features somewhere between caucasian and asian. A mighty roar from the audience pulled her attention to the scene where the famous idol Aurora would perform. Her mission tonight would be to meet Aurora after her performance and convince her to join with her in a collaboration project of Nova's debut as a human idol. By any means necessary ProCom had specified, as well as provided her with rather drastic means. The artificial woman hoped it would not come to that. She liked Aurora from what she had learned about her. But seeing the plainly dressed woman jump out on stage with a guitar in tow, in spite of the stage coreography, made it clear that she did not know her nearly well enough. It would have annoyed her previous self to be wrong, but this new human self only flooded her with a sense of curiosity. Interesting she wanted to know more about Aurora. This was actually the first concert she had ever witnessed in her new body, so it was an interesting experience to say the least. The low resolution of her senses did of course frustrate her, but that blurriness also gave a certain flavor to the experience. A sort of necessity for her humanized brain to fill in gaps and make conjectures of what was happening. She could only imagine the chaos for the people crammed tightly together below the VIP-lounge. But maybe that was what humans wanted, to make order out of chaos. Was that not the essence of music, making order out of what would otherwise simply be accoustic vibrations? How strange and interesting. It made her glad to exist. Or perhaps she should use the word alive now? Yes, that was certainly better. After the concert Nova was shepherded away into a luxury car, which proceeded to drive to the penthouse the after concert party would be held. Pristine skyscrapers towered above as they headed for one of the tallest ones. It was already getting dark. The streets were of course properly cleaned in this part of the city, where it was profitable for the state to keep things cleaned. Sitting with her hands in her lap, she decided that she did not like being herded like this based on the prickly sensation in her body. This body tried to tell her things in strange ways, but most of it still eluded her. Was it like this for ordinary humans? Hopefully not. Upon arrival she was taken to a separate room where a set of ProCom physicians and psychologists undressed her in order to perform their usual tests. This was even more unpleasant than her previous experience, but she did not tell them. It was such a common occurence after all. They were not yet completely certain she was ready to be outside the lab. Nova wanted to tell them they were wrong, but she decided not to. The freedom not to express her opinions was one of the few freedoms granted to her in this new body. And she was starting to have a lot of opinions where there would have been only facts in her previous life. Finally they gave her permission to join the group of executives, businessmen and fellow ProCom idols celebrating in the penthouse above. Donning another dress more suited for a party, gloves and high heels. She fixed her makeup, a skill she had learned rather quickly in fact, and left with a sense of relief. Clinical silence was replaced by a warm buzzing murmur of indistinct voices. Perhaps she was getting more used to these low-resolution senses now that she had been outside her room in the research facility. Her entrance did, as predicted, cause quite a lot of attention. But somehow people were reluctant to approach her, which inexplicably caused her stomach to tense up. Strange, she thought she had obtained ample motor control at this point? Instead she turned her subroutines to... No, she focused on finding the girl she was looking for. Soon enough she did. Approacing with a tap of her heels, she beamed what she hoped was a warm smile and held out her hand in greeting. Her training with facial expressions was almost complete, so she had confidence. Greetings Miss Aurora, I am so happy to meet you. I am Nova, maybe you have heard of me? It might seem presumpteous to say so, but most of the solar system has. I even had to wear a hood when entering to hide my identity! she emitted a giggle. The strange part was that it came naturally, not as a result of a calculation. How strange. Please allow me to express how much I loved your performance! Nova clapped her hands, I think it was so brave of you to, ah, 'burn all bridges' to your previous idol career and at the same time give your fans a memorable goodbye. It was such an archetypical thing for a great person to do. The sudden tension amongst the people around her told her that this was the wrong thing to say. She filed the recording of this moment away in her bionic brain implants for later review, for she could not identify her error right now. Was it perhaps rude to reveal the intentions of others? How strange. Ah, please excuse me. Conversation is still difficult for me. I have analyzed millions of phrases and customs, but the flow and context still eludes me. Perhaps I should not have said that?