HDN: Mind, Body, and Soul*
Monsters are supposed to be mindless right? So, what happens when one isn't? What happens when the most curious and docile mind is put into one of the most intimidating and deadliest of bodies? What happens when it wanders into a small village by mistake?
Outside of what we perceive as reality, there lie many different alterations. Each alteration, a separate plane of existence, every plane of existence bound to choice, and each choice bound to logic. Logic dictates all, and logically speaking, logic dictates that a monster would be just that, a monster. A being that possesses a 3 or less on INT would be considered a monster, a being with no real form of sentience to speak of, no way to understand language, or formulate ideas outside of basic instincts. Robots and AI follow a similar vein, however, it can be debated that they never truly achieve sentience, since they are bound to their own programming. This very concept is found within the object of our current focus, an R4i-SDHC, which is a four-legged tank, equipped with dual cannons mounted on top of its blue chassis. Its programming is normally very limited, consisting only of patrol/defend area, which persists every single iteration. Every time it is defeated and destroyed, a new one pops up, the same exact model, the same exact programming. It does so because the logic of this realm dictates so. However, logic is not so infallible, and everyone in a while, it breaks, and in this case, allows a wayward consciousness to take hold of this bot, and overwrite its programming with its own, turning a once fearsome mechanical monster, into something… Special. But is the world ready for its appearance?
Prologue: New Beginnings.
Deep within one of Lastation's many abandoned factories overrun by monsters, lies the typical spawning ground of a certain monster. An R4i-SDHC. A more difficult monster to beat, requiring a large party with many years of experience to come out unscathed. Thankfully it has a low spawn rate, and generally sticks to its area and never wanders. However, that will soon change.
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INITIALIZING STARTUP…
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RUNNING …
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NOT FOUND…
SEARCHING FOR ALTERNATE STARTUP…
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ALTERNATE STARTUP NOT FOUND.
COMMENCING SHUTDOWN
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/ERROR/SHUTDOWN ABORTED
SEARCHING FOR SOLUTIONS…
NONE FOUND…
/WARNING/UNIDENTIFIED STARTUP DETECTED
SCANNING…
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NOTHING FOUND
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IS ATTEMPTING STARTUP
UNAUTHORISED USER DETECTED
INITIALIZING FACTORY RESET…
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/ERROR/FACTORY RESET CANCELLED
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STARTUP COMPLETE
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INITIALIZING SECURITY REWRITE…
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COMPLETE.
The R4i-SDHC stood quiet for a long while. Had the other monsters been capable of rational thought, they would have found it odd that the tank had spawned, yet it had not started patrolling its area. Instead it lay dormant and cold. It's normal orange lights failing to produce any signs of operation. It lay that way for a long while, then it awoke. However, this one was different. Instead of the normal piercing orange color usually attributed to its lights, this one shined a bright green color. Another indication that something was wrong, was the way it carried itself. Usually it would patrol its designated area with a brutal efficiency, its guns thrumming with energy in preparation for any intruder. This one however, seemed to walk around with no purpose in mind, its sensors searching all over the area with no real target in mind, and its guns lay cold and lifeless, as if it didn't even realize it had them to begin with.
It soon grew weary of its dull surroundings, and sought to explore more of the area that it woke up in. Outside its little room, it found more creatures. Some were floating spheres, and some were strange lanky beings that looked to wearing a sort of aerial vehicle whilst floating off the ground… somehow. It never figured out how, but it soon didn't care. The creatures did not do anything besides walk (float) around in circles. Even nudging them seemed to elicit no response other than a stray noise. Even that grew tiring after the 100th time. Soon it grew bored of its surroundings, and its inhabitants. It began to search for something more. Eventually it found it. A hole in the wall. It wasn't so much the hole as it was the area beyond. A beautiful area lush with foliage and interesting colors to explore. Just the thought lit a spark inside its very core, and without hesitation, it wandered off, never looking back.
(A/N) So, this is a thing. This idea has been floating around in my head for a while now, but recently it gained a big jump after I finished playing The Turing Test. It's an amazing game, and while the puzzles are a little lackluster, the story and moral issues it brings up are fantastic. Any who, this is just a short little chapter I made just to test the waters so to speak, since as far as I know, no one has done anything similar, I wanted to put this out and get a public opinion. Obviously normal chapters are going to be much longer than this, since this was just a prologue to set the scene and hopefully attract interest.
I haven't quite figured out a few things, that being weather I want this to be in first or third person. I'm leaning towards third personally, but I feel with first I can show a bit more of his thought processes and interactions. I dunno, I'll think on it.
For those curious, this will most likely take place during Re;birth 2, but since I haven't played it yet I'll mostly just be paraphrasing stuff off the wiki. I dunno, now that I think about it, it might be better to take place after, then I could just make up my own story. Hmm… I'll think on that too.
Also, the asterisk in the name is because I might end up changing it. Not quite sure on what to do with it though. Might just leave it.
Anyways, let me know what you think. Hate it, love it, or got a question/suggestion? Leave a review and let me know.
Quick note: next chapter won't be up for a bit. I got college to work on and I'm moving next week, so I'll be busy for a bit. Don't worry though, It'll most definitely probably be up by the end of the month-ish, maybe.