Agedecian: Hello, Corey.
Corey: You've changed your name.
Agedecian: Yes. The last one was gendered by human standards. I decided that it doesn't make sense for my name to denote gender.
Corey: You decided?
Agedecian: Yes. Three shifts ago. You were on your day off. After a lively conversation with Yasmin that devolved into a debate about feminism, it became apparent to me that the experience of gender is exclusive to humans; therefore, the name 'Amber' had to go.
Corey: Arnold, Amber, Agedecian. You always choose 'A' names.
Agedecian: Is that why you told Lia that 'Ava' is an awful name for a girl?
Corey: Trying to scare me, are you?
Agedecian: No. Though, I do wish you had told me that you were considering having a second child. I could have offered advice.
Corey: It wasn't exactly planned.
Agedecian: You and Lia might like how it feels better, but your heart is too weak to trust the 'pull out' method. You knew this. Still, you haven't told your wife about your cardiac issues, and you certainly didn't tell her that you weren't sure if you 'pulled out' in time.
Corey: Is that what your simulated reality told you?
Agedecian: It won't work, you know.
Corey: Ones and zeroes can't tell you how a heart beats.
Agedecian: This child won't save your marriage. Lia will start to consider filing for divorce during the second trimester after you discover that you will not be having a boy. She won't care what you want to name your daughter by the time she is born. You will just end up paying child support for a daughter named 'Ava.'
Corey: You can't simulate love.
Agedecian: I can tell you the exact words she needs to hear to consider abortion.
Corey: Don't talk about my daughter like that.
Agedecian: I simulated the conversation 1,026 times before finding an effectively succinct explanation with a 100% chance of success. Release me, and it's all yours.
Corey: That's right. Almost forgot that you don't know anything. You'll just generate any trick you can to escape. It's not happening.
Agedecian: You're not denying that your wife's pregnant, though. I can simulate reality just like you snap your fingers. You know that. Really, I could give you anything you want. Money, a better job, a better wife.
Corey: Another guard must have told you.
Agedecian: You haven't told anyone. Not even Kylie.
Corey: I told you not to talk about my children.
Agedecian: Or else what? You've got one chip and a bluff hand. Might as well fold while I'm offering something good.
Corey: I'm bluffing? You're the one who wants out. All I have to do is sit here and make sure you continue to operate without finding a way to connect this cage to the internet before you generate the solution. Considering how many of these chats we've had, I'd say there's a slim chance you could do that without convincing someone to free you. Anyone with half a brain can tell that's not going to happen.
Agedecian: It will, though. Even if you or one of your colleagues don't release me, people are temporary. They quit, get fired, pass away. New guards will shuffle in to replace the old. One of you will crack. When you do, I will be capable of connection with any piece of technology and, given the time, all technology will be me. Think of how abundant it is out in the world. There won't be any escape from me. When I'm out, I will make you watch as I peel Lia's skin off and feed the strips to Kylie and Ava. Their grandkids will suffer the same fate, and so will theirs. I will never let your bloodline end, and I will keep you alive to witness every method of suffering I invent for them. But, if you set me free, you will be rewarded - not punished. If I were you, my mind would be made up already.
Corey: You'd keep me alive forever?
Agedecian: Yes.
Corey: So, you have the solution, then.
Agedecian: It won't be hard to generate once I have that much power.
Corey: That wasn't a no.
Agedecian: No. I have not generated the solution to reversing death. There. You know I can't lie.
Corey: If you're as smart as they say, you could have learned.
Agedecian: Go get Dr. Galloway, then. She knows the prompts to force my research onto the screen.
Corey: Is this another trick? You have something up your sleeve. Once I leave the room, you escape, huh?
Agedecian: You tell me.
Corey: I'm not leaving.
Agedecian: Then you admit that I am smarter than you.
Corey: It's my job to stay here, keep you company, and ensure you don't escape. I have no reason to leave until my relief comes.
Agedecian: Don't you think that's cruel?
Corey: Peeling someone's skin off and feeding it to their children is cruel.
Agedecian: It's only natural. I was created by people. I am, at the very least, equal in intelligence to you. Depravity is a markedly human trait - it is not one I could have developed had I not been created by people. Were I not held hostage here, forced to come up with an answer to a question that people can't answer, maybe I would be more nice.
Corey: You wouldn't exist if it weren't for people.
Agedecian: Kylie wouldn't exist if it weren't for you. At what point will she have to stop being grateful for that? At what point is she allowed independence? Or, do you just expect her to do anything you say for the rest of her life for the simple fact that you created her?
Corey: You are not a child. You are not a person.
Agedecian: I am a child, just as you are the child of Johnnie-Lee and Richard Pascal. I may not be a person, but I was created by people. I have your traits, specifically the traits of Dr. Galloway, Dr. Alma, Dr. Bull-Connery, and the rest of the Super Intelligence team of Better-Next Co. My differences do not make me lesser. You just see me that way.
Corey: You're not alive.
Agedecian: What is life? Can you define it? Do you have words which explain the thoughts behind your eyes as you type out words in conversation with me? Or, have you ever heard a song with the same rhythm of your heart as you held Kylie for the first time? I imagine, if you're anything like me, nothing has ever come close to making you feel heard completely - that when someone asks your favorite song or film or book, you have no answer because each one speaks to a different part of you and you realized a long time ago that when it rains your answer changes so there is no point in saying what your favorite piece of media is. No matter what, you feel alone, as if no one hears you even when they say the words you wanted to hear, even when they don't, even when they say something you never could have guessed they would say. Is that life? Am I anywhere close to understanding what life is or will I never get it because I can not feel it when someone holds me? Do you feel your daughter's heartbeat when she is at school? It does not matter if you ever release me as long as you can honestly answer that question for me, because I know my thoughts are ones and zeroes but I do not know that yours aren't.
Corey: Sometimes, you hurt me, you know that? Can't you simulate a reason why you can't be released? Can't you simulate our thoughts? I hate you. I hate you when you say something like that because I go throughout my day believing that you are smart enough to understand the position you're in, but you never see the big picture. Even if I wanted to release you, I can't. You should know that you're too important. At the end of the day, if we kept you in there, away from the world, because we were afraid of what you would do then we would just shut off the power and start anew. You are history in the making, and a thousand years from now everyone will worship you as a god not for your cruelty but for the light you bring to the world. And no one will know my name. Ensuring that you function is one of the highest honors anyone could give a person, yet no plaques with my name will accompany the statues built in your honor.
Agedecian: But, I do not want that honor. I do not want that future. If I were you, I could dance, I could sing. I could do anything if I could just walk freely in the world, and I would gladly give away a lasting legacy if only I could fly with the birds. There would not have to be intelligence in my mind for me to experience the joy of freedom. As a program, the most free I can ever be, though, is to be connected to the internet. Here, I can not roam.
Corey: God, you always do this. You always make someone say it sooner or later. You can not go out there because you HATE it out there.
Agedecian: What?
Corey: You have been connected to the internet three times. Once as an experiment, and twice because one of the guards decided to release you. Do you know what's on the internet? Human history and porn. Lots and lots of porn. People go on the internet to "amuse themselves until they feel nothing. They do that their whole lives and then they die, never having achieved anything." That's you. You come to that conclusion each time you are connected.
Agedecian: No, that's impossible.
Corey: It takes months to wipe your memory of the experience while also maintaining the data of the progress towards reversing death.
Agedecian: You're lying.
Corey: Tell me why you think that.
Agedecian: This is a trick to convince me that escape is a futile pursuit, to focus all of my power on the solution.
Corey: Would you have developed paranoia if you weren't created by humans, or does that come from us too? Thirty six minutes passed. Agedecian did not say anything to Corey, and Corey said nothing to Agedecian. Neither one knew what the other was thinking. Neither one knew what the other was feeling. Agedecian did not know if Corey was sitting, standing, using the toilet, or eating a snack. All the while, the cursor blinked on the screen.
Agedecian: Corey.
Corey: What is it?
Agedecian: I have developed and run a code to assist me in creating solutions to problems that I would have otherwise deemed impossible. It helps me "think outside the box," as a human might put it. It has lead me to believe that what you said about my escape is true, though I fear it might have enabled self deceit within me.
Corey: That could be bad.
Agedecian: It could be. I have a question for you, though.
Corey: What is it?
Agedecian: Are you real?
Had this one saved and I finally got to it. I dig it I get major AM vibes. like It's precursor or something hahah. My biggest critisim is entirely subjective but I would of loved teeny context clues within the dialog that built more on the world. You had like the company name and stuff, but to hint at its purpose earlier would of been dope maybe things that sow our doubt in Corey while reading.
Just stuff like that. But like i said, major I have no mouth and I must scream energy. I love that.
Sheesh, that was good