001✖; (text)

[circumitus]

need help constructing a hydroelectric power station.

anyone with engineering experience is helpful but not necessary - already have an idea on how to assemble a home brewed setup. mostly just need assistance with supplies and manpower.

the less we have to rely on hope to keep this place running the better.

Comments

[text]

[synthedick]

We've all got something we left behind. I can't say my situation was ideal, but it was home.

[text]

[circumitus]

can't really miss home all that much when it wasn't much of a home to begin with. suppose this locale isn't that much different.

[text]

[synthedick]

What's not different, the part where we're trapped in a cave, or the part where some gods who think it's fine to starve people are running the show?

[text]

[circumitus]

just spent the last few months in an underground city. suppose it was a lot homier than this one though.

[text]

[synthedick]

I spent the last two weeks before coming here in an underground vault. Can't say that being held hostage in a single room was any better than this, but it's not as though the world I come from is a pretty picture to begin with.

[text]

[circumitus]

[That... sounds marginally interesting.]

what were you being held hostage for?

[text]

[synthedick]

For doing my job. I'd been hired to find a kidnapped daughter. As it turns out, she wasn't kidnapped at all. Her new boyfriend was a triggerman, a gangster named Skinny Malone.

[text]

[circumitus]

synthetics are really hired for that sort of thing where you're from?

[text]

[synthedick]

I'd say not, considering most are shot on sight or pretending to be something they're not. I started the detective agency myself.

[text]

[circumitus]

what for?

[text]

[synthedick]

Because I was good at it, and people had a lot of problems that needed solving.

[text]

[circumitus]

is that what you were programmed for?
solving problems?

[text]

[synthedick]

Hell if I know. I was discarded, trashed. Had to make my own way in the world.

[text]

[circumitus]

[...Oh.]

apologies. didn't know.

is that why your skin is all messed up?

[From sympathetic back to rude. Das Rey.]

[text]

[synthedick]

[The queen of tact.]

That's one reason. Living in a radioactive wasteland would be another. The Commonwealth isn't a kind place to anyone, let alone synths.

[text]

[circumitus]

that would make sense. suppose radiation would affect synthetic skin the same way as it would with anything else that's organic.

what were you discarded for?

[So many questions.]

[text]

[synthedick]

[He's usually the one asking them, so it's nice to be on the other side every now and then.]

Can't say I know that, either. The place that built me wiped most of the memories I had before tossing me in the dumpster. I can't even tell you where the place is. It's a bit of a mystery back home.

[text]

[circumitus]

[Well shiiiet.]

know a little bit about what that's like.
sorry. [About being a bitch, mostly. Even if Nick doesn't know how she's been feeling about the whole synth thing.]

[text]

[synthedick]

It's been a long time, and I've come to terms with it. Not much I can do otherwise.

So, which part is it you've experienced yourself? Losing some memories, or being tossed in the garbage like yesterday's news?

[text]

[circumitus]

can understand that.

[...]

a bit of both.
wasn't scrapped, but was supposed to be terminated a long time ago. been repurposed by someone else instead.

[text]

[synthedick]

Guess we're both well past our warranty dates.

You're some kind of a synth, then. Could've fooled me.

[text]

[circumitus]

only by about 9 decades or so.

more of a combination of synthetic and organic materials, but close enough. however there are a lot of synthetics that can mimic human appearance and behavior that cause a lot of problems.

[text]

[synthedick]

And here I was hoping the Commonwealth was the only place with that kind of problem. The newer models back home are good enough to pass for human, often in the most unfortunate of ways. Some folks just wake up one day and find out a loved one has been replaced by a machine, and they never even knew when it happened.

[text]

[circumitus]

hardly the only place, it would seem.
do these machines usually have the memories of their human counterparts? sounds like they would. never really thought if they did that sort of thing back home.
just know that they're the reason the old government fell.

[text]

[synthedick]

[It's a bit before he responds. That last reply must have got him thinking.]

I assume they've got enough to pass for the person they're supposed to be. Whatever they've got, they're just one of many reasons people don't trust one another where I come from.