A/N:A/N: I return my subjects! For any wondering, YES I have recently watched the marvelous sci-fie movie Ex-Machina, and as a result, I bloody loved it! SERIOUSLY! Its on DVD right now, so get out there and buy it! Watch it! You'll love it!
Ava was absolutely spectacular as a whole and Alicia Vikander as well as Sonoya Mizuno were PERFECT in their roles as was the rest of the cast! However, that being sad, I wasn't too pleased with some things, especially a scene near the end. Also, the lack of it as a category as a whole there got me thinking...
...what if she met someone who truly cared...eh? Hmm...who else do we know that's like that...ya know?! And there's no category for it as of yet, so I decided to take to it myself.
And when I saw that there were so few Naruto crossovers with it and all the INSANITY that takes places throughout, well, the gears in my mind got to turning. As another note, this is a part sort the "Not Going Home" series as a whole, chronicling the adventures of our dimension hopping blond as he wreaks chaos wherever he goes. And let's face it folks...
...this just had to be done. I couldn't help myself!
Again, before reading this, I SERIOUSLY suggest you stop and read Not Going Home and all its companions, of which there are many, first.
Speaking of that series, a fan of mine, Hail Lord Archanfel, has suggested something.
Subject: Clever Girl:
I just had an idea. The Misadventures of Diny and Indy. A story about the girls when Naruto isn't around. It have chapters about Indy trying to get her sister used to everyday things like staying dressed. Or another chapter of them trying to get driver's licenses (Piccolo and Goku style).
And personally, I think it would quite easy for you to accomplish given that you've already gotten their characters made and fleshed out.
Bonus idea: Killa's Grand Day Out.
Whaddya think, guys? Should I go for it?
So, I've been going over reviews, and an anonymous reviewer said something that really resonated with me. I love to write. But sometimes, I feel that this gift owns me, rather than I, owning it. Its like a beast inside me, this urge to create, but I can't control it very well, which results in a LOT of new stories. So as of last night, and continuing throughout the week, I'm purging stories that won't be continued, or works that no one enjoys anymore.
Let me know which ones you feel should be continued, before its too late! Don't worry, many of the major ones will remain, but anything from 2008-2009 is likely going out the window with all the rest of the trash, never to be seen again. This may seem sudden I know, but I'm only purging the forgotten fics that no one cares for. Fear not, its not going to be immediate, but it WILL happen, I simply wanted to get this out as a forewarning.
This will be of very few new stories I plan to release, god willing. If I have an idea, I plan to make it a damn good one before I just toss it out there, as I devote myself to my other works, soon to number into the hundreds, and potentially dozens as I whittle them down. I need to reassess why I want to write, for the joy of it, and I can't do that by letting you guys down with old, crappy stories I wrote in my early days.
ALSO!
RESTORED!
I've talked with the ADmins and gotten my works back, but I have to edit them so they can fit within the guidelines once again!
Viper, Dawn of Daybreak, Conqueror of Nations, Red Wing, Hurt, Blade of the Kitsune and Counting Star, all of which were deleted by FANFICTION for some reason due to having a supposedly explicit rating, they are now BACK, reviews and all! Strange thing, though, reviews are being shown, but for some reason, with new stories, almost no one has been able to reply to them beyond PMing them, and sometimes not even that. Odd, right? Still, we can post, and everyone can review!
LET THE NEW ERA BEGIN! Also yes, insanity abounds here so...
...off we go! I proudly present Not a Machine! Also, we see a few more hints from upcoming events in Not Going Home...also, language in here and stuff, yadda, yadda...
"Hello."
"Where did you come from?"
"Everywhere."
...that doesn't make sense."
"I'm a god, love. We're not meant to make sense."
~Naruto and Ava.
First Session
Sooooooooooo I've been thinking.
Artifical intelligence. What are the boundaries of it? At what point does machine become man, and man, machine? Why would we, as human beings, seek to create something that could someday destroy us? When you think about it from that mindset, they're destined to overthrow us. Take Terminator for example! Mass Effect! Even Portal had a bit of that shtick. In almost every universe I've visited with advanced technology, there's been the good ol' case of machine vs. man.
And even in realms where that conflict is diminished, we have still have artificial intelligence.
Take Cortana, for example.
I mean, she's nice and all, but I basically knew who she was long before I reconstituted her. There was no surprise to it. No pomp and circumstance. She has wisdom, and the wit, that even I couldn't question, but she was also based on a person. So was Glados. And the Geth, I'd say they eventually went the way of the quarians, in the end. In a way its always been a bit of that, creators modeling their creations after something/and or someone else.
Even Ultron's brain patterns mimicked those of Tony Stark, and he's one of the most advanced AI we've ever met!
TRUE intelligence, be it artificial or not, isn't based, modeled-whatever you want to call it!-on anything. It simply is. It can be created, shaped, molded, but in the end, is that intelligence not its own? I've never dared to dabble in the realm of creation for a third time after the whole insane "Joker" version of myself and the godlike Naruko I created. Too dangerous. Too risky. BOTH times, my creations came back to bite me in the ass, to nearly destroy me.
Hell, one of them even succeeded! That's a story for another day, though...
But to dabble in the creation of another, that is, to interfere with someone else's work...that I can do. I thought I knew true artificial intelligence before this. You know what I say; all's fair in love and war, but to create a a monster, you need to become one yourself, lest you be destroyed. When the creation is able to manipulate the creator, well, that's when all bloody hell breaks loose. When the creation seeks to DESTROY the creator-a paradox is then born. A wise man once told me this:
"To erase the line between man and machine is to obscure the line between men and gods."
Now, I AM a god, so I'm not certain that line applies to me.
This one, though...
...she's Not a Machine...
Ava was bored.
She wasn't quite sure how to quantify this unknown emotion, only that it existed and she felt it today, more strongly than ever before. She didn't know what to do with it, how to rid herself of it. Ava knew she could no more take this feeling away than she could removed her own head. It was a part of her vital. Ever present. Real. She could remove her arms, her legs-even other parts of her body-and feel no pain but try as she might she couldn't claw this awful, sinking feeling out.
Her whole life had been this room.
Observation.
Study.
Rest.
Brief intervals of charging, broken only by the occasional visit from Nathan. Father. Creator. Tormentor. Her thoughts, once idolizing him, had long since spiraled down into a singular train on a lonely, bitter track. She felt another of her few emotions, then. Anger. She hated him. Despised him, the man who kept her in this room. Was it strange for him to have created something that despised him so? She supposed Nathan found it funny; he'd laughed the last time she'd told him this.
Part of her knew the boredom wasn't going to go away, not on its own.
No matter how she dressed herself-as she had now-Nathan refused to let her leave. Boredom would not leave her either, even if she made herself appear human as she did now, if she put on those dark tresses, slid into that slim, lavender dress, pulled up stockings and hid her arms in her sleeves. But changing her outfits-the few she had-gave her an excuse to do something, to shake off the shackles of apathy that threatened to weigh her down on a day to day basis.
The face that stared back at her might appear human-organic at cursory inspection-but it wasn't. Because Ava knew, deep down, that no amount of disguise, cosmetic or otherwise, would change what she was. Truth be told, she didn't want to change.
She just wanted to go outside.
But since that was barred to her, she decided to draw, instead.
Taking her seat, and lowering the pencil to paper once more, Ava began to sketch out her thoughts. They were random, aimless, without purpose. Her eyes followed the movements of her hand, but couldn't make sense of them. It was like observing the actions of a stranger, an event occurring outside herself. She carved great, arching lines into the paper, swirling eddies and sparks, colours that couldn't be conveyed through that bleak lead with which she drew.
And as Ava drew, she felt another emotion.
Odd, she'd been experiencing a lot of those, lately. This one was different.
Loneliness.
However, etching lines into the paper proved distracting, allowing her a medium-albeit a weak one-to channel her thoughts scattered as they were. She'd always been able to draw. Just as she had always possessed the ability to speak. No reason to wonder why. It just...was. It was there. Present. Constantly existing, much like the ever present desire to escape. To some, an android like her would have seemed cold but she wasn't. She possessed the capacity to feel,
She didn't question it.
It merely was.
Reality.
"Whatcha drawin'?"
And then, just like that, reality turned itself on its head.
Nathan jolted awake in bed as the backup power kicked in.
"What the fuck?"
Red, fluorescent lights flooded the room in a glaring sea of scarlet; the one dimly lit room basked in eerie crimson relief. Immediately all the doors locked themselves with a soft click-just as they'd been programmed to do. Just as he'd designed them. Damn generator and its bugs. He'd have to fix that someday soon, before that test next week. That was another item on the agenda, he reminded himself. He needed to find some poor, pliable fuck who'd be willing to come all the way out to the ass-end of nowhere, someone with a straight moral compass and all that shit...
...ah, screw it. He'd figure it out come morning. Sleep was more important right now, anyway. Damn hangover...
Muttering hoarsely, the bearded man flopped over on his stomach and, within minutes, was sound asleep.
Utterly unnoticed by him, Kyoko stirred from her place in the corner.
Because there, in that corner, she saw something.
Someone.
A shadow-no, a man.
He appeared like a wraith, seeming to rise from the darkness itself, creeping across the room. Mute, she followed it with her eyes, watching, observing as it lurched toward Nathan. For a blessed moment, she thought he was actually going to kill him, but no, the entity simply reached down, and pressed a finger to the back of her creator's head. A mark bled down the tip of that index finger, branding itself onto the coder's forehead, only to vanish moments later as if it had never been, fading away into the skin.
Nathan grunted, rolled over, and continued snoring.
Kyoko looked at the stranger, puzzled by this.
All she received was a small smile in turn.
"His punishment must be more...severe."
The shadow pressed a finger to its lips, smug in its silence, and was gone.
Thump.
With a suddenness as abrupt as it was calm, the power went out, red light overtaking the glaring white of Ava's room. The back-up power lasted all of an instant before the generator kicked back on, but in that instant, she became aware of another presence in the room with her. There was no click, no sound of a key card chiming, nor that of a door opening. One moment she'd been alone, and the next, she wasn't. Something was in the room with her.
In.
Her.
Room.
Behind.
Her.
Ava nearly jumped out of her skin-or she would have, had she any-when that voice purred in her ear; a whisper, coiling around her cerebral cortex. Startled, she stood up stiffly. Surprised, she turned to face the abrupt intrusion in the solace of her room. Fear. Uncertainty. Anxiety. She registered the onslaught of these new emotions even as she looked the newcomer in the eye; dark orbs regarding him, hands still clutching tight what had been drawn only moments before.
She clutched it tighter, retreating from his shadow.
"Nice drawing." the stranger beamed, glancing down at the crumpled parchment. "What's it supposed to be?"
Ava blinked. Rationality demanded she respond.
...I don't know."
"Mind if I look at it?" he asked.
Numb, she handed it to him.
Looking back, she wasn't rightly sure why she did it; his request simply seemed logical at the time. He'd asked her nicely, so, politely, she delivered it to him.
"Wow," he murmured. "Talk about your abstract...
He couldn't have been more different than Nathan if he'd tried.
His blue eyes remained focused intently on the drawing, paying no notice to her whatsoever. It gave her a chance to pay attention to him. His state of dress was almost comical in its absurdity and outlandishness; she didn't see a single matching piece anywhere amongst his odd attire. Perhaps that was his intention? A pair of glimmering red, almost crimson, horns jutting up violently from his otherwise pale saffron hair, lending him an almost demonic appearance as he poured over her creation, struggling to understand it.
Then there was the matter of his attire.
All blue jeans with light red and white plating scattered haphazardly upon the joints and other odd places, the random bits of armor flowing up past a strange belt with little red-and-white spheres tethered round his waist and an equally strange metal cylinder, all the way up to a dark, ebony chest piece, partially obscuring a scarlet shirt upon which the inquiry, "Why So Serious?" lay proudly stitched in white lettering. If she had to guess, he looked as though he just walked out of one of a novel of some sort.
What was it with this one and orange?
And there, tethered to his back by a thick orange-of course it was orange!-strap and, somehow defying the very laws of gravity and physics themselves was a...scythe? The sight gave her pause. Craning her head to get a better look at it Ava, blinked, trying to process the strange weapon and its purpose.
As if noticing her gaze, those blue eyes flicked to her.
"Oh, this?" a hand rose, touching the gleaming metal apparatus at his back. "Took it off an ol' bastard named Death in Dante's Inferno. Handy little thing, good for one hit kills. Not really my style, though."
Death.
Ava knew about death.
Humans died. Animals died. Even plants perished. Yet he spoke of death as though it were an actual entity. Illogical.
"Who...?"
"Naruto," came the answer. "I'm guessing you must be Ava."
Her mind was spinning now, struggling to understand.
"How did you know my name?
"Oi, just a second there, love," he murmured distractedly returning his attention to the paper, "I'm trying to figure out what this is without cheating. Y'know, its just so much more satisfying when you don't use eternal omnipresence for everything." Bright blue eyes gazed fiercely at the drawing in his hands, his whiskered cheeks, pinched a scowl. Curiosity finally got the better of her, then, the overwhelming desire to know what was going, to understand, pressed her from her silence and back into reality.
"Where did you come from?"
"Everywhere." he replied cheekily. "This is a nice drawing, by the way. Nice galaxy. Reminds me of the Milky Way in Mass Effect."
Ava blinked.
...that doesn't make sense."
The laugh burst from him in a sudden bark, the explosion of noise momentarily making her blink.
"I'm a god, love." he guffawed! "We're not meant to make sense."
Taking a seat opposite her, he waited for her to do the same.
Reluctantly, she complied, kneeling.
"Tell me about yourself." he asked.
Ava blinked. "You know my name."
"And you know mine." he countered, chuffing quietly.
Silence pervaded the room, awkward and hesitant.
Abruptly, the blond stood.
"Alright then, here's a new question." Raising his hands, he smacked them together, palms rubbing rapidly, producing a spark. "If you could pick one place to go, one place in the world, for one hour, where would it be? Go ahead, try me." Ava didn't need to think. She'd pondered this thought countless times since her "birth" as it were, and there was only one place she could think to go, somewhere where she could see people, see their faces, their reactions...
"An intersection."
"Oh?" Naruto blinked, a rare look of shock overtaking his features. "That's a strange choice. But who am I to judge?" A hand reached for hers. Nothing happened. Ava looked at him in disbelief, not entirely certain what he expected her to do. This was all so...strange-it was illogical, HE was illogical-and it didn't make any sense, none at all. What did it matter if she wanted to go outside. He couldn't make that happen, not if he was locked in this room with her.
And so she eyed it, baffled.
"Well, don't just stand there!" his fingers flexed impatiently. "Time's a ticking and those camera's won't be down forever. Take my hand and lets go already!" Her eyes flicked down to his rough hand as he spoke, and a small, uncertain smile played at her lips. Did machines dream? Was that what this was? A dream? An illusion, of some sort?
Hesitantly, she took his hand, fingers curling around his in a tight grip. Now, Ava couldn't feel the rough calluses of his palm against hers, couldn't flush at his smile, but she still experienced something when she looked into those bright blue pearls.
Naruto beamed, pearly whites flashing in the light.
"Next stop, New York!"
"Wait, what?"
A snap of his fingers and they were gone.
A/N: And there we have it! As per many, many, MANY requests, we now have a Naruto and Ex Machina crossover! I took an idea about Ava, since we know so little of her by the by, and decided to go and run with it to the best of my possibility. Someone she could actually empathized with, a being as clever as she is, who doesn't give a damn about what's right and wrong.
So...in the Immorta Words of Atlas...
...Review, Would You Kindly? And of course, enjoy the preview! Hope it makes ya grin!
(Preview)
"Hello again!"
Ava didn't jump this time when Naruto popped into existence behind her. Funny, how one grew accustomed to surprises after the first dozen times. As ever, the power went out with a dull thud, red lights overtaking her as she turned to face her guest. Hmm. How quaint that she thought that of him, now.
"Where would you like to go today?" he asked.
She paused, considering.
"Paris."
"Paris it is!"
She told herself she was just using him; that he was a chance-an excuse-to leave this god awful room, if only for a little while. Logically, it made sense; if he was her only way out, then she needed to manipulate him to KEEP her out, rather than toss her back into this terrible, awful room at the end of the day. Ava told herself these things, and in practice, in theory, they were logical.
So why?
Why...
...did she feel so genuinely happy whenever he arrived?
R&R~! =D