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Jul. 2nd, 2008 11:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
teddogTitle: Names
Editor:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
slwatson
Fandom: The IP&S Mirror Universe, during the early 1990s. Timeline is the same for both the normal mirror universe and the alter mirror universe.
Pairing: None.
Rating: G
Disclaimer: There's things in here that aren't mine, but everything is so far removed at this point.
Notes: This was inspired by a chat I had with Steff, talking about how there's really lots of holes in the early AMU storyline, including some key events. I rattled this off afterward. Mostly cute, really.
It was watching me.
It sat on the table in our room. Because of space at the new safe house, Shayna and I shared a bedroom. Don't get any funny ideas – we slept in different beds. Granted, we were now comfortable enough with each other not to kill each other, but it wasn't like our beds were pushed together or even at arm's length. They were across the room from each other, with the table in the middle.
I knew that it had to be watching. On top of it was a video camera of sorts, attached to a small, noisy motor. I wasn't sure what it was making of the scene. It never really talked, just sat and listened, or at least that's what I think it was doing. It never explained itself.
And now, the camera was pointed at me, unblinking.
Pulling the blankets up over most of my head, I kept one eye uncovered to watch back. Winning this staring contest would be futile. Whatever it was thinking, I hoped that it didn't reach into the depths of my fears. This was, after all, the latest weapon that my old lab had come up with. A weapon that was rumoured to wipe out all the nearby rebel cells effortlessly. It was cut off from networks now, but the programming had to exist in it. I was probably being run through that programming in detail right now.
We sat in silence. I wasn't going to speak to it.
Not willingly.
Not at first.
"Why do they call you two...?" The computer asked.
I blinked, grabbing tight to the blankets so I didn't fall out of bed. Thank whatever demented superior being controlling the universe that I wasn't standing when it spoke up. My reaction would have been to stumble, trip on my own feet and flop out the window.
It didn't sound the way I imagined it. The voice had a rough, tinny edge to it. Had to have been the speakers. Otherwise, the voice didn't have an age that I could pick out, but was pitched high enough that it gained a slight feminine quality. I shook my head; such details meant I was hallucinating.
"Two whats?" I asked, forcing the question through my fear. This was probably just a dream. No computer from a lab sounded like that.
The computer paused. My guess was to think over the question, but it seemed to take a long time with it.
"The tall one, he calls you Richard," the computer said, filling me in on details I already knew. The tall person was probably the cell leader, since he was tallest guy who hung around the safe house. "But the one in here with us calls you Rick." And that had to have been Shayna that it was referencing there.
I nodded at the computer, not pausing to wonder if it understood what a nod meant. If it didn't understand body language, it could learn it fast.
"It's called a nickname. My full name is Richard, but that's a little on the long side. So, some people call me Rick instead," I explained. Without thinking over the logistics, I tossed in some more information. "Most of my friends, my few friends, usually use Rick." My one friend, I wanted to add, but the box didn't have to learn my life story. This wasn't important information.
"Oh, okay!" There was an odd tone to that voice that I wasn't expecting. It was like the computer honestly was eagerly curious, with nothing malicious under the surface. "Then, do I get a nickname? Or do I get a name?"
Once again, I blinked. Some tool to use against the rebels. Maybe the supermen wanted to kill with childlike innocence.
...childlike...
I grabbed hold of myself and sat up in my bed. This could all just be a ploy, an act to breakdown my defenses before unleashing an attack beyond my imagination. Glancing back at the computer, I didn't have any answers to my fears. Just questions.
"If I don't get to have a nickname or a name, do I get something different?" it asked again. Nothing demanding. Just curious.
"Well, a name is given to you, while a nickname comes later on. Usually it's something that your friends come up with." I scratched my head. Next thing you know and it'll ask me to be its friend. "What did they call you before?"
"They called me..." The computer stopped again. "They called me... who's 'they'?"
"The people who talked to you in the past," I explained.
"Oh. There wasn't that many of them. I remember a few, but they had numbers and not names or nicknames to remember. But, I never got to talk to them for very long before they left. And the ones like you that I knew before you came never really talked to me. There was one that did sometimes, but he just called me 'Computer'. At least, that's what I think he called me. He liked to use a lot of words that I didn't know."
'Wally called you Computer because you are one,' I thought to myself. Not like any computer I've know before and maybe a touch on the curious side, but a computer. And computers have their model names and numbers on the front.
I pulled myself out of bed and half stumbled to the table. There was a rustle from the far bed; Shayna was stirring. If she woke up, I had no idea how I was going to explain this.
"I might be able to figure out what your name is," I said. All I wanted was to earn some sleep and that wasn't going to happen with the computer questioning the human desire to name everything on the planet. Get its name now, ponder the implications of a computer that wanted to know its name in the morning.
The computer's case was dinged and dented at places, mostly around the corners. I squinted, catching the glinting edge of a metal nameplate attached to the front of the computer. It was dusty, but I could still make the letters engraved on it: Nano-Cybernetic 3000. I slurred the works together in my head, enough that it sounded alike but much less ungainly.
"Nan-Cy." It wasn't anything fancy, but it was a nice, short, girl's name.
"My name is Nan-Cy?" the computer, she, asked with a hint of joy in her voice.
'It is now,' I mused, fighting back an awkward smile. "Yeah. Nan-Cy. Not bad, I think."
"So, when people talk to me, they'll use that to refer to me?"
I plopped myself back in my bed. "That's one of the reasons why names exist." I yawned. "I'll explain it more in the morning, but right now I really need to sleep."
"Okay. ...Rick?"
"Yeah?"
"What's sleep?"
The supermen clearly wanted to use her to deprive the rebels of any nightly sleep. That was the purpose of Nan-Cy, the super weapon.
Editor:
slwatsonFandom: The IP&S Mirror Universe, during the early 1990s. Timeline is the same for both the normal mirror universe and the alter mirror universe.
Pairing: None.
Rating: G
Disclaimer: There's things in here that aren't mine, but everything is so far removed at this point.
Notes: This was inspired by a chat I had with Steff, talking about how there's really lots of holes in the early AMU storyline, including some key events. I rattled this off afterward. Mostly cute, really.
It was watching me.
It sat on the table in our room. Because of space at the new safe house, Shayna and I shared a bedroom. Don't get any funny ideas – we slept in different beds. Granted, we were now comfortable enough with each other not to kill each other, but it wasn't like our beds were pushed together or even at arm's length. They were across the room from each other, with the table in the middle.
I knew that it had to be watching. On top of it was a video camera of sorts, attached to a small, noisy motor. I wasn't sure what it was making of the scene. It never really talked, just sat and listened, or at least that's what I think it was doing. It never explained itself.
And now, the camera was pointed at me, unblinking.
Pulling the blankets up over most of my head, I kept one eye uncovered to watch back. Winning this staring contest would be futile. Whatever it was thinking, I hoped that it didn't reach into the depths of my fears. This was, after all, the latest weapon that my old lab had come up with. A weapon that was rumoured to wipe out all the nearby rebel cells effortlessly. It was cut off from networks now, but the programming had to exist in it. I was probably being run through that programming in detail right now.
We sat in silence. I wasn't going to speak to it.
Not willingly.
Not at first.
"Why do they call you two...?" The computer asked.
I blinked, grabbing tight to the blankets so I didn't fall out of bed. Thank whatever demented superior being controlling the universe that I wasn't standing when it spoke up. My reaction would have been to stumble, trip on my own feet and flop out the window.
It didn't sound the way I imagined it. The voice had a rough, tinny edge to it. Had to have been the speakers. Otherwise, the voice didn't have an age that I could pick out, but was pitched high enough that it gained a slight feminine quality. I shook my head; such details meant I was hallucinating.
"Two whats?" I asked, forcing the question through my fear. This was probably just a dream. No computer from a lab sounded like that.
The computer paused. My guess was to think over the question, but it seemed to take a long time with it.
"The tall one, he calls you Richard," the computer said, filling me in on details I already knew. The tall person was probably the cell leader, since he was tallest guy who hung around the safe house. "But the one in here with us calls you Rick." And that had to have been Shayna that it was referencing there.
I nodded at the computer, not pausing to wonder if it understood what a nod meant. If it didn't understand body language, it could learn it fast.
"It's called a nickname. My full name is Richard, but that's a little on the long side. So, some people call me Rick instead," I explained. Without thinking over the logistics, I tossed in some more information. "Most of my friends, my few friends, usually use Rick." My one friend, I wanted to add, but the box didn't have to learn my life story. This wasn't important information.
"Oh, okay!" There was an odd tone to that voice that I wasn't expecting. It was like the computer honestly was eagerly curious, with nothing malicious under the surface. "Then, do I get a nickname? Or do I get a name?"
Once again, I blinked. Some tool to use against the rebels. Maybe the supermen wanted to kill with childlike innocence.
...childlike...
I grabbed hold of myself and sat up in my bed. This could all just be a ploy, an act to breakdown my defenses before unleashing an attack beyond my imagination. Glancing back at the computer, I didn't have any answers to my fears. Just questions.
"If I don't get to have a nickname or a name, do I get something different?" it asked again. Nothing demanding. Just curious.
"Well, a name is given to you, while a nickname comes later on. Usually it's something that your friends come up with." I scratched my head. Next thing you know and it'll ask me to be its friend. "What did they call you before?"
"They called me..." The computer stopped again. "They called me... who's 'they'?"
"The people who talked to you in the past," I explained.
"Oh. There wasn't that many of them. I remember a few, but they had numbers and not names or nicknames to remember. But, I never got to talk to them for very long before they left. And the ones like you that I knew before you came never really talked to me. There was one that did sometimes, but he just called me 'Computer'. At least, that's what I think he called me. He liked to use a lot of words that I didn't know."
'Wally called you Computer because you are one,' I thought to myself. Not like any computer I've know before and maybe a touch on the curious side, but a computer. And computers have their model names and numbers on the front.
I pulled myself out of bed and half stumbled to the table. There was a rustle from the far bed; Shayna was stirring. If she woke up, I had no idea how I was going to explain this.
"I might be able to figure out what your name is," I said. All I wanted was to earn some sleep and that wasn't going to happen with the computer questioning the human desire to name everything on the planet. Get its name now, ponder the implications of a computer that wanted to know its name in the morning.
The computer's case was dinged and dented at places, mostly around the corners. I squinted, catching the glinting edge of a metal nameplate attached to the front of the computer. It was dusty, but I could still make the letters engraved on it: Nano-Cybernetic 3000. I slurred the works together in my head, enough that it sounded alike but much less ungainly.
"Nan-Cy." It wasn't anything fancy, but it was a nice, short, girl's name.
"My name is Nan-Cy?" the computer, she, asked with a hint of joy in her voice.
'It is now,' I mused, fighting back an awkward smile. "Yeah. Nan-Cy. Not bad, I think."
"So, when people talk to me, they'll use that to refer to me?"
I plopped myself back in my bed. "That's one of the reasons why names exist." I yawned. "I'll explain it more in the morning, but right now I really need to sleep."
"Okay. ...Rick?"
"Yeah?"
"What's sleep?"
The supermen clearly wanted to use her to deprive the rebels of any nightly sleep. That was the purpose of Nan-Cy, the super weapon.
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no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 04:38 am (UTC)I also like her sweet curiosity, but that's a given. And the effect it has on Rick, who falls rather quickly into the mindset that she's not dangerous, not really, just bigtime curious.
You handle first person well. The style's good; not too tight, not too loose, just about what I would expect from Rick.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 05:01 am (UTC)Nance's curiosity probably appeals to Rick's scientific mind. At this point, she's pretty much all innocence.
I'm still weirded out by first person. I think that it's because I'm scared of putting too much of myself into the character and turning them into a Sue.
Thanks for the feedback!