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[chapterfiveversenine]

PLAYER STUFF
Name: kappy
Pronoun: they
Preferred contact: plurk at kappycane, pm a journal
Other characters: none


CHARACTER STUFF
Name: Legion
Aliases: none, other than the occasion false internet profile used to appear human.
Canon: Mass Effect; Legion, Geth
Role: Hero
Species: Geth
Gender: none

Age: Legion’s component programs vary in age from two years to two centuries old; their specific configuration is two years old
Appearance: one, two

Origin story: The Morning War proceeded as in canon, and when the geth gained control of Rannoch, they were left with a question: what now?

The answer, of course, was to construct their Dyson sphere, and house as many geth as they could within. Two centuries into the project, and they’ve begun to realize that limited to Rannoch’s resources, it’s going to take an eternity, so they’ve decided to initiate first contact with various other species and institute trade to accelerate the project. Legion was one of several platforms deployed for this purpose. While they were transiting through the Sol Relay, a quarian strike team infected their shuttle with a virus, damaging the transit protocols and causing Legion’s craft to spiral out of control, eventually crashing on Earth in the middle of the Sahara desert. Stranded on Earth with no resources and little hope of returning home or contacting the geth consensus (except for sporadic transmissions every few decades, given the new quarian guards), Legion cannibalized their ship’s parts to restructure their own weapons systems and tapped into the Earth’s internet, interrupting various connections and doing their best to learn about Earth’s culture. A kid in China trying to access a game, an elderly couple in Canada trying to Skype their grandchildren, a teenager in Mexico trying to check her grades - each randomly selected and asked various questions about Earth culture while Legion worked on their platform, because what is subtlety?

It didn’t take long before they learned about superheroes.

One thing led to another, and Legion now serves along the North American West Coast, fighting crime and comically misunderstanding organics and their habits. They’ve been active for about six months, but have risen fairly quickly in popularity, partially due to the fact that they can respond to almost every question they’re ever asked personally.

Personality: The most obvious thing about Legion is that they are a compound AI, and one created virtually from nothing and lacking contact with organic civilization. A relatively recent arrival on the superhero scene, Legion still fails to understand much about organic life, humanity especially. Legion is logical to a fault, and actually lacks several emotions that organics experience - they are, at the very least, incapable of experiencing fear.

They do, however, experience some emotions - in canon, they’re shown to experience sorrow and regret when they learn of the geth-heretic divide. They tell Shepard that they’re sorry when they sacrifice themselves on Rannoch, and thank Tali for acknowledging their sapience. They have no explanation for the N7 shoulder guard they used to repair themselves; when Shepard presses them on the issue, they only respond with “No data available.” They can also experience shame, and conceal the Reaper upgrades they gained from Shepard because of it.

Geth also seek to understand organic life; in an experiment, they falsified a report that the homeworld of the batarian species appeared to have a constellation of a goddess of the salarian species in its night sky. The ensuing flame war on the galactic extranet taught them a great deal about organic society. Their questions about organics stem primarily from the Morning War itself, and the geth desire to understand quarian actions. The geth do not resent their creators, and remember those who stood up for them during the conflict.

Legion also has an entirely foreign viewpoint on individuality; as a 1183-runtime collective, they see the concept only as something to be avoided at all costs. To them, individuality is a weakness, and they have trouble understanding organic concepts such as privacy and the need to be alone. The ultimate goal of the geth, after all, is to construct a Dyson sphere in which no geth will ever be alone.

Legion’s requirement for absolute consensus can impede their moral decision-making: in canon, they turn the decision of whether to destroy or brainwash the heretics over to Commander Shepard, unable to come to agreement within themselves on what the correct course of action.

Legion is also an avid gamer, and while they excel at tests of skill, they lack strength in the more narrative-based aspects and styles of play - their score on dating simulators in canon is “abysmal”.

Differences from canon: Legion is best described as “simpler”, mostly as a result of their lack of significant interaction with the Old Machines and organics. Having never met Nazara, the geth have yet to undergo their schism, and Legion has never been divided and unable to make a decision before. Indecision, individuality, and emotion are mostly new concepts to the geth, even more so than before.

The impending threat of the Reapers is also gone, and so the geth lack the single-minded focus AI are capable of. Before, Legion had two priorities - to keep their people safe from the quarians, and to free them from the Old Machines. In this incarnation, the Reaper threat isn’t an issue (yet), and a quarian assault on the geth would go much more poorly than in canon. Legion is thus free to interact with others without the looming pressure of the impending apocalypse, and can thus deal with other, different apocalypses. You know, the Earth supervillain kind, instead of the robot space squid kind.

Power level: A, although Legion currently operates only on B-level missions due to lack of experience. The Morning War was significantly more lethal than superhero operations, and CONDOR is a bit nervous about letting Legion run wild.

Powers: Legion, as a compound AI within a platform designed for long-distance travel, is skilled at hacking and communications, and being a robot, comes with the standard set of robot “powers” - higher durability, no need for food, water, or sleep, higher ocular fidelity, etc. They can parallel process efficiently as well, and are equipped with powerful broadcasting capabilities. Legion’s combat prowess stems primarily from two things. The first is a set of thrusters built into various points along their platform, mostly the legs, back, and shoulders, but also including elbow and foot rockets. The second is their ability to emit mass effect fields by electrically stimulating the element zero (“eezo”) they cannibalized from their ship and weaponry.

Mass effect fields do exactly what they sound like: alter mass, raising in in response to positive currents and lowering it in response to negative ones. The trick is in the application: Legion can form kinetic barriers by emitting a mass-raising field in response to high-velocity objects, thus forcing them to fall to the ground before impacting them. Lowering their own mass allows them to engage in flight or high-speed charges, and a sudden raising of mass can turn either into a two-ton tackle. Envelop a target half with mass-raising fields and half with mass-lowering fields, and you can rip it to shreds (a technique developed by eezo-imbued organics known as warp fields). Calibrate lowering and raising fields properly and you can lock someone in stasis, paralyzing them until the fields wear off. Legion can emit mass effect fields from any part of their body to affect themselves, but can only target others with emitters on their hands in a straight line.

Legion can also employ Hunter Mode, an ability which halves the strength of its defensive fields in order to give more strength to its offensive ones, as well as granting them thermal vision. Additionally, they can vent the energy of their barrier as a pulse attack. This last ability is lethal to standard humans, so they generally avoid it.

Team affiliation: Legion is a team by themselves, by which I mean they are unaffiliated at this time. They are officially registered with CONDOR, though, and have worked with other heroes in the past.

First person sample:

Inquiry: what is the purpose of self-poisoning by alcohol ingestion?

Alcohol is toxic to humans, yet human media not designated for the very young depicts the consumption of alcohol as a desirable trait leading to more enjoyable socialization and increased sexual appeal and prowess. Media often depicts consumption of alcohol by teenagers as natural or even humorous, but schooling systems advise strongly against it. World religions appear to have mixed opinions on the issue. When not depicted as desirable, alcohol is shown to result in humorous situations; however, alcohol abuse has serious symptoms and is considered to be deserving of an organization, support groups, and various other resources. We do not understand these discrepancies.

All data is appreciated.

posted 24 January 2014


Prose sample:

Platform Sol-1 rips another plate off their dropship and pauses to process multiple organic responses. The young human in China wishes to know if they are a “superhero”. Seven runtimes peel off and begin correlating information on the topic from humanity’s internet. The human who self-identified as “just a college kid, man, I don’t know what to tell you,” suggests they contact CONDOR, an organization who apparently has the resources to deal with the legal implications of their presence here. 100 programs are dedicated to this topic, in order to penetrate locked databases and gain access to restricted information, and another 47 are added to the superhero topic for the same purpose. The elderly couple doesn’t seem to understand what’s happening. That connection is determined to be useless and terminated.

The child in China seems very excited about the possibility that they are a superhero. The Mexican adolescent also appears to have determined this possibility, and has described herself as “cautiously optimistic”. Both are asked about what a superhero is like.

Responses come in at approximately the same time the subdivided runtimes dedicated to superhero research return their report; consensus is established that a superhero is a being capable of feats beyond that of standard human biology who attempts to enforce human laws. Human attitudes towards heroes appear generally positive. A potential course of action is established: remain on Earth, and establish themselves as a superhero to advance cultural acceptance of Geth before arrival of Perseus Veil consensus. Arrival of Perseus Veil consensus is at least a century distant; quarian guards on local relay have doubled; Perseus Veil consensus check-ins are rare. Course of action must be decided within one local month.

Platform Sol-1 pauses and checks on their connection. The Mexican adolescent has asked for their name. They inform her that they are geth.

No, the Mexican adolescent insists, I mean your name. Not the other geth. The one on Earth.

Sol-1 clarifies that there are 1183 geth runtimes on Earth. The adolescent remains insistent that they need a name, one to differentiate themselves from the geth who are beyond the Sol relay.

She says that she attended church just yesterday, and the verse “My name is Legion, for we are many,” stood out to her.

A search of the internet reveals that the quote’s source stems from one of humanity’s major world religions, as the response of a man possessed by demons to the son of the religion’s god.

Consensus is achieved. The metaphor, Platform Sol-1 thinks, is appropriate. Self-identification systems are readjusted. A message is sent to CONDOR shortly.

“We are Legion, a terminal of the geth,” they intone. “We wish to integrate into Earth. We understand that superheroes are public figures who are responsible for enforcing Earth laws with superhuman abilities.”

A pause. “We wish to become a superhero.”