(no subject)

[victormakesart]

If you find yourself in a secluded corner of the Nexus, past the rhinestone statue of a... no one quite knows what that is, but it's blobby in shape. And perhaps not a statue at all. If you find yourself there, you might stumble upon a child's birthday party.

The birthday cake is pretty standard. It says: Happy 2nd Birthday Anya and Athena!

That's where the standardness ceases. Little Anya is dressed as Amelia Earhart, but she keeps taking off her hat, messy blonde hair static clinging up. Athena is dressed up as a toaster, keeping with the history theme, because that's in the history of mechanical doodads and Athena is a robot. It made sense to her papas.

Victor, for her part, is dressed up as Abe Lincoln, complete with a fake beard and a stovepipe hat. That is to say: she's being ridiculous, like usual. Anya is trying to tear the beard off, and Victor is leaning back out of reach of her tiny hands, laughing.

Comments

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

"They're very cute," Adia says, because that's what one says about small children, expect she really does mean it, the two are positively adorable. Her gaze lingers on Athena -- this is the child Victor built, the one who Adia was afraid would be like a cylon, except she's just a little girl, not very cylon-like at all.

But her costume, once it registers to Adia, sends a shiver through her. Victor couldn't possibly have known that "toaster" is slang for cylon where she's from. Still, it's a little unnerving. "Is it normal for people from Earth to wear costumes on their birthday?"

((Sorry I'm impossibly slow with tagging. My baby got sick right before the holidays and I'm only now just getting my act together. But I didn't forget!))

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

Victor would humbly protest and say that, really, Billy mostly built Athena, she just sort of helped a little. The child she built mostly on her own, Jude, has yet to be activated. He's ready to get transferred into his body. He's fully formed, completely built, checked for bugs and run through simulations. But he hasn't been put in his body. Victor's scared to activate him. Precisely why is hard to pin down. Maybe she's afraid that she made a coding mistake. Maybe she's scared he won't like her.

"It's not a normal thing at all, nope. But this birthday has a history theme, so I decided that we'd be dressing up in historical costumes."

The Doctor strolls by in high-waisted silver pants, a cravat, and laser glasses. "...in some cases, historical costumes that haven't happened yet," Victor points out.

((Gosh, no worries!! I hope your kid's doing okay now.))

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

Adia probably wouldn't be able to assuage Victor's fears. She's still lukewarm at best to the idea of creating artificial life. Victor gets a pass because of how kind she's been to Adia and how much love she has for her children.

"I wish I'd known. I would have worn a toga," she jokes. She follows The Doctor with her eyes. "The future is very shiny," she decides with a small giggle. The girls are cute. It keeps her relaxed. "Athena is a toaster." Ha ha. "Anya is... a pilot? And you're...?"

((She's fine now. Making me get up super early, but that's normal. ;) ))

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"Anya is dressed as Amelia Earhart," she says, trying to trick her back into wearing the hat. She's having none of it. "The first lady to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean. And I'm... Abraham Lincoln, the fellow who freed the slaves (and was President). Admittedly, I only really dressed as him 'cause he's known as being super tall, and I'm soooo not."

((I'm glad! Though the getting up super early, oof! :) ))

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I see." That does explain the pilot costume. "A president who freed slaves... I'm assuming this was some time ago in your Earth's past?" She laughs. "You're tall enough, Victor. If you were super tall, I'd have to crane my neck."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, totally. Like a good... one-fifty years ago. Not long enough for me, though. We never shoulda had slavery to start with. Some places it's still going on." She wants to save the world. She wants to toss on a cape and make everyone act better toward each other. But now's not the time to get broody and grumpy so she kisses the top of Athena's head. "Gosh, I'm itty-bitty. I know all of my kids're gonna get taller than me."

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

"Slavery used to exist on Kobol, but that was thousands of years ago." Not that Adia's climbing on any high horses. The Cylons probably thought of themselves as slaves, and the Saggitarions weren't treated much better. "Sounds like a good president, then." She watches Athena a moment, then asks with a forced casualness, "How's your kid that you... um, were working on?"

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"Lucky," she says, and she fully means it. At least in that case, Adia's world is more evolved, better at human rights, if not people rights. Victor chews down on her lip and doesn't even notice that Anya is trying to feed her hat to Ziggy the robot dog. "I've built him. I've programmed him. I just haven't put the two together yet."

She leads a little away from the girls. Anya might not retain the information, but Athena has a memory like a video camera, and good hearing besides. "I'm just nervous, is all. I don't know why. I guess I've never had so much control over the process before. Anya was a surprise, Athena was mostly built by Billy, and now I have the control, and I can't hit the final buttons."

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

It's a bit of a surprise, Victor's reluctance. So don't, she thinks, then immediately feels guilty. Victor is a good, loving parent. The evidence is right in front of her. Her son won't decide one day that he hates all of humanity. She hopes. "Do you feel like... if anything goes wrong, you'll blame yourself, since you built him?"

She looks over at Athena again. Just a cute little kid, doing cute little kid things. "I don't think you have to worry, Victor... if your son is anything like you, he'll be amazing."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"I'm afraid that my programming might not be good enough. What if I activate him and he feels bad? What if all of my studies on the soul gain superficial results and... and he feels like an outsider, or he acts the right way without anything backing it? And what if he doesn't like me. I've done all of these simulations, but I can't know until he's in his body. It's a leap of faith. It's not like I've been programming all my life; just for about three years. And I've had a lot of help, but I'm so scared to fail, and that my failure will hurt the boy." So her worries aren't attached to what Jude might do, but how he might feel. Her concern is for him, not others, which is sweet, in a way. She has full faith that he'll be a good boy.

She looks over at her daughters, too. A small, shy smile, unsure of herself.

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

Adia wonders to herself, briefly, if the cylons worried about these sorts of things when they created their human-looking models. If they cared about having a soul or how they'd feel with false memories. The fact that Victor cares so much is encouraging, but Adia can spot worried over-thinking as she does it often enough herself. "If any of those things happen, it won't be because you failed your programming. He's going to be who he is. But I'm pretty sure he's going to love you, and feel loved."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"I worry," she says, softly, "that I might not be as smart as I think that I am." She depends so much on her own cleverness. But today's a good day, a happy day, pretty much the best day, and she shouldn't be acting like a broodyface. All the same, she looks like a massive weight has lifted from her. The tense little muscles in her face since she started talking about Jude have smoothed out again. She feels better about the whole situation. "He'll be a good boy. Happy."

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

Adia hopes that something she said helped. "If I could, I'd take on your worrying for you. I've gotten very good at it." She grins and looks back over at the two birthday girls. "Do you think I could have a slice of cake? I haven't had birthday cake since... my birthday, I guess. A while ago."

((Bedtime for me! Also, I finally moved Adia forward in her canon's timeline. I'm deciding when to post to DM. That community has become very quiet lately. It makes me a sad panda because I don't know where else to RP.))

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"I think things'll be okay," she says, and the oomph is there behind her words. "I'm not gonna worry. If I have to tweak his programming, I'll figure it out as I go. I've made parts of him imperfect on purpose, so I shouldn't be freaking out about this."

She smiles this wide, toothy smile, heads over to the cake. She is taking very good alien painkillers, so there's only a bit of a wobble to her steps. "Oh totally! Have two!" She leans in, confidingly, "The girls shouldn't be having too much sugar anyway."

((Goodnight, rest well! Make sure to poke me when your post is up! I don't really check the site anymore, but I'd love to reply and play and catch up. And, I know. I mostly play journal to journal now. You could do that, maybe, too?))

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

"How will he grow?" She asks Victor as they walk back over to the cake. "Will you build him a new body?" How will Athena grow, for that matter? She laughs softly at Victor's words. "Not unless you want them bouncing off the walls all night."

((I will let you know! I am happy to play journal to journal and maybe I'll throw up a post there as well in case other folks don't check DM anymore as well.))

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"There are certain spots on his frame that can be expanded when the time comes. At his waist, his shoulders, his neck, arms, legs, chest, stuff like that. And his holo'll fill in the rest." Athena, on the other hand, without her holo, looks almost like a ball, with orbiting littler spheres, gathering information. She's almost all holo, but solid, warm to the touch (Victor came up the idea to make a shifting holo for her).

((That would be fully awesome. ♥!))

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

"Oh, that makes sense." The expansion of his frame, that is. "Holo as in hologram? Won't that leave, um, gaps?" She pokes at the air. "Like, you could touch him in spots and just have your fingers pass through?"

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, you got it." Victor gets gleeful at the question, shifting from side to side a little, she can hardly contain herself. "That's actually something I came up with for Athena when she was still in production! There's this shifting matter underneath, like muscle and skin, with sensors for heat and sensation. It can even simulate the rush of a pulse. But I can't get texture and detail and good color with that matter, hence the holo."

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

"Oh." She looks over at Athena, then away guiltily. She wasn't just thinking of giving the girl a little poke in the side, nope. "That's really impressive. Does that mean she could change her appearance if she wanted to?"

((I've put up a post on Adia's LJ. I decided to eschew D_M for now.))

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"She can. And she does. A lot. She shifts ages sometimes, hair color. I made that impossible for Jude. He can make cosmetic changes, but not on a whim; he has to work torward it and program it in manually."

((I'll check it out! Is it okay if Vic happens to be in the Nexus at the time? I'm not sure if she could trace text back.))

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

"I'm glad you changed it for your son. I don't know why, but I don't think kids should be able to do that. Call me old-fashioned." She grins a little.

((Whatever works for you. :) I'll probably be going to bed soon but I'll tag back when I can.))

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I agree. Athena was mostly Billy's work, and I like the way she changes around, for her. But I don't think it would be good for Jude. I want Jude to feel his own limitations and learn to make beauty within them." She smiles back at her, warmly.

((Awesome, thanks! Rest well when you do! :) ))

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

Victor's words trigger a thought in the back of Adia's mind. A line of questioning she has long since forgotten gets a little tug. Her gaze drifts as she pokes at her subconscious, trying to bring that thought back into focus. Something about cylons and why they took human forms, forms that couldn't change...

But then the two girls start giggling over something, and Adia's attention turns to them. She smiles softly. "Are you ready for three kids? How are your husbands, by the way?"

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"That was part of what I was worried about," Victor admits, face tilted toward her girls. "But then I realized that... I'd have a million kids if I could. That I love people, and children, and the work I do with them is... energizing as much as it is exhausting. Even when I'm dead on my feet, I feel... proud, and I love my girls fit to bursting. And my husbands are doing awesome. Tonight James is going out with Jonny for some boy time, Cole issss... right there," she says, craning her neck to see, then pointing to the back of a man in a crazy white wig. "He went as Einstein. How're things going by you?"

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

"A million!" Adia laughs, but in admiration, not to make fun. "I think I'd be worn out with just one. But I'll bet you have room in your heart for a million."

She peers in the direction Victor points. She doesn't know who Einstein is, but the hair reminds her of Doc Brown, which is oddly in the right ballpark. "Not bad, I... guess I have a boyfriend now." She feels dorky for admitting it, but she likes that she is finally building a life with someone else, when a year ago she didn't think she'd ever move on.

((So many RP threads! I should hit the hay, but I'll tag back more when I can!))