askerian: Serious Karkat in a red long-sleeved shirt (Sasuke_fading away)
askerian ([personal profile] askerian) wrote2007-09-07 03:29 am

Crossed Wires prequel

For [livejournal.com profile] mika_kun, "Immediately after Sasuke was discharged from duty in CW.".

I'm annoyed at myself. I can't make the mental picture I had of that scene come across properly. I think I've hit another bunny drough, everything I tried to write today had to be pulled out word by word and it tends to end up flat and uninspired at best. T_T



Kakashi hasn't slept a lot in the last three weeks. There was no time. There rarely is, when your society does its best to implode. So when he drags himself out of his apartment after a six-hours-long night -- sinfully long -- he isn't exactly what one might call alert.

He kind of trips on the young man sitting in the staircase, and takes a nosedive. His reflexes are on a cruise somewhere in the Pacific, along with his general awareness and all the sleep he's lost, and he reflects with some vague annoyance that his plans didn't include spending the next month in the hospital.

A hand presses against his chest, halting his fall, supporting him like he weighs nothing at all. He catches the handrail, wobbling dangerously over his unexpected obstacle. They give each other an upside-down look.

"Sir?"

Kakashi sighs and pulls himself upright with the handrail, letting the young man get up. "I didn't expect you here."

UG-7-SA is one of a dozen Uchiha police-bots who have been stationed at his police station ever since that Secret Services unit went rogue and started terminating all other Uchiha units it could get its hands on. Last Kakashi heard, SA is also the only one left, due to the other units never coming back from their patrols eventually. No one is sure how SA dodged the bullet. Not that they really have much time to think on this mystery, what with their country deciding that this is the best time of the year to riot.

Except that their rookie android is on his doorstep and not, as he should be, on patrol or at the station. And if he were carrying a message, he would have knocked.

He's not wearing a badge.

Kakashi might be half-asleep, but he knows what this is about even before the rookie-bot says it. Maybe he should have expected it -- very few cops treat the brand-new Uchihas as anything but machines, not that this is unexpected because it takes them a while to behave as anything but. And it isn't like they're allowed to socialize off-hours on their own when they don't know anything about life just yet. Kakashi treats the rookies the same as the other Uchihas, though, the same as the other, human cops. It doesn't cost him anything, and it helps them reach the AI threshold faster.

He might be fond of them, too, a little.

"So?"

The rookie-bot frowns, clearly confused -- lost. He doesn't have a clue how to say, 'Help, I don't know where to go'. Kakashi is even wondering if he has a clue why he came to Kakashi in the first place.

Kakashi goes back to his door and unlocks it. "Come in," he says, before the kid can get frustrated by his inability to explain. "You can stay as long as you need, Sasuke."

[identity profile] book-people.livejournal.com 2007-09-07 01:46 am (UTC)(link)
;_; Poor Sasuke-bot. He's got no clue how to deal with the weird shifts his life (er... is that the right word for a robot?) is taking. Good thing he's got people he can go to, even if he doesn't know why. *pet pet*

I think this is good, Asuka. Not flat at all. You manage to pack a lot of depth into a few words, something that is very hard to do.

One thing I noticed: "six-hours-long night" should be "six-hour-long night".

Adi
tephra: Photo portrait of a doll with shaggy, dark orange and copper hair, wearing a pink slouchy hat and sky blue glasses. (Default)

[personal profile] tephra 2007-09-07 02:22 am (UTC)(link)
Aww, poor little lost Sasu-bot.

[identity profile] kinsugi.livejournal.com 2007-09-07 02:24 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you! I really wanted to see something from Crossed Wires, but was afraid to ask.

[identity profile] kinsugi.livejournal.com 2007-09-07 03:09 am (UTC)(link)
Gee, thanks!

I think there's potential here: "...they don't know anything about life just yet. Kakashi treats the rookies the same as the other Uchihas, though, the same as the other, human cops. It doesn't cost him anything, and it helps them reach the AI threshold faster."

You've got Sasuke staying at Kakashi's place, at apparently an early stage in the socialization process. But by the time he shows up at Naruto's place in CW proper, he's doing a pretty good job of passing as human.

So what kinds of things might have happened to help him along, what Kakashi calls reaching the "AI threshold", while Sasuke was with him? How'd the android learn to act more human? I'd love to see more Kakashi/Sasuke interaction.

(No, I wasn't assuming sex, you perverts!)

[identity profile] sister-dear.livejournal.com 2007-09-07 02:51 am (UTC)(link)
Bunny droughts are no fun what-so-ever. Congratulations on managing to produce something post-worthy despite that! :) And maybe it's not what you had in mind, but I didn't find this flat or boring. I like how Kakashi knows what Sasuke's there for even though Sasuke himself doesn't.

[identity profile] lissiel.livejournal.com 2007-09-07 04:11 am (UTC)(link)
bitty sasubot ftw!
(deleted comment)
qem_chibati: Coloured picture of Killua from hunter x hunter, with the symbol of Qem in the corner. (A cat made from Q, E, M) (Default)

[personal profile] qem_chibati 2007-09-07 08:23 am (UTC)(link)
I love the crosswires universe so much, it's always so interesting.

Part of the AI process would be learning to set up their own commands, and working out where to go without knowing explicitly.

I would imagine that in this case there are some subroutines, instincts that the bot wouldn't be overtly aware of that can help assist with getting to the point where the robot *has* experience, and *can* make choices, and move from instinct where they do things but aren't sure why, to intuition, where they can learn to read deeper than what's there, they might not know exactly *why* they know, but the knowledge is something that they can control and doesn't need to be explicitly stated for everything. Something that lets them see deeper, under stand tone, develop a sense of humour, understand sex joke and become more individualised - no longer a pure copy.

The whole idea with AI is that they are to become independent so the process would be following along those pathways, learning about societies expectations, and how to fit in, without having to be told each step of the way what to do.

[identity profile] mika-kun.livejournal.com 2007-09-07 07:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes! Thank you so much! I love how Sasuke just doesn't know what to say. It's totally out of his range of experience so he has no precident to follow. I also like how you have the AI bots 'grow' into individuals capable of interacting with others. It would have been very odd for them to just start up and know how to act and yet still be able to develop there own personality because if they had already known how to act why would they have changed anything?

[identity profile] sara-the-lazy.livejournal.com 2007-09-07 09:21 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm sorry this didn't turn out how you wanted it to... still, I really enjoyed this. It's easy to feel for the lost, confused Sasuke-bot here Introducing Kakashi in this way opens the door for a lot more pre-plot of Sasuke's development, as Kinsugi said. It's good for if you feel like writing sidestories to help develop the present or just for fun.

I hope that you can get your flow back for Crossed Wires, and that you can keep from getting too frustrated when the bunnies don't come or every word is so hard to get out. It's a great story so far, and it'll come with time, I know it. Good luck!

~Sara