6.0 There's the rub

[no_fastolfe]

It was certainly not a medical coma in any way. It was like sleep-- a long, untroubled sleep, with elements of physiological stasis to prevent muscular decay and other unwanted bodily functions.

I nearly wish I hadn't woken up. This ship looks like a dead world and the archives are full of fear and missing people. I can be no help, could have been no help. I would rather have gone on sleeping.

[Private to Sherlock after some backreading]
I am not redeemed and continue to have no idea-- or urgency to find out-- what the terms of my redemption are.

[Filtered to inmate-buddies-- Rinzler, Rhade, Dracula, Rassilon, Rex]
You are well, then?

[Infirmary filter and Sherlock]
I am going to need the services of a mentologist. I would like to discuss options for medications. It became extremely apparent during the involuntary honesty flood that my mental state is not what it was at home, and that I have had little success controlling my reactions to stress.

[Here's where pride intersects awkwardly with some kind of vestigial empathy] However I am hardly in dire need, the situation is still largely under my control: I realize that the infirmary is short staffed and there was a concern of injury resultant from the barge phenomena.

Comments

[no_fastolfe]

...I am glad, then, that I was not subject to that sort of treatment. It would have made my stay far less enjoyable.

He writes technology for the child-- or I should say, I do not mean to offend, means that he describes as if to a stranger technology and principles that should be familiar to any Auroran. It may make his writing more accessible to a non-Spacer.

[feels-no-love.livejournal.com]

It was...a unique experience, dealing with them.

No, no, that is all right. I understand what you mean. I am a complete...what is the word...layman. I am a complete layman when it comes to your time period, with less practical education than a young boy.

[no_fastolfe]

You are not to be blamed.

[Not the response she gives to people she doesn't like, but then hypocrisy is strong in this one.]

There is a short story, it is very charming-- about a young girl who loves her household robot so much that she forces her parents to reclaim him even in the tide of anti-robot earth sentiment. And he is happy to return to her. That story I felt was rendered very well, I have the name of the collection, if you like? [Her face gets soft for that. Of COURSE the little girl wanted to get Robbie back, and she likely went on and became a roboticist because why wouldn't you love your childhood robot?]

[feels-no-love.livejournal.com]

It does sound rather charming. Of course, I come at it from the point of view of another nonhuman race learning to get along with humans. I have had some success, but do not yet have the capability for very strong attachments.

[no_fastolfe]

Then perhaps 'I, Robot' will be of interest for one reason than one. It is set in a time in Earth history when robotics was new and popular reaction to them mixed.

[feels-no-love.livejournal.com]

I shall have to peruse the entire Asimov section then. He sounds brilliant.

The man who fictionalized my own story and society...

...not so much.

[no_fastolfe]

The man is only competent but he is rarely offensive.

I regret that your experience was not the same.

[feels-no-love.livejournal.com]

Never let a nebbishy little Victorian man with repression issues and an obsession with the epistolary form write a book about you. I kid not.

If you want to know my actual story, just ask.

[no_fastolfe]

Perhaps some time I will-- I find your actual existence more interesting than some sensationalized piece of conjecture.

[feels-no-love.livejournal.com]

Oh, that I promise.