Pomni let Curse find their seat before saying anything. She was glad that Kinger helped them, even if it was going to make things messier. It was the right thing to do, to prevent someone with sentience from being lost forever. "Now that it has been confirmed that there is a third creative AI, that should be considered in any argument." She looked over the list she had put together for this meeting. All of this, even the slightly easier stuff was going to be heavy. "First, we are going to cover if all of us think Caine has done enough to officially let him off the hook now. Please raise your hand if you wish to speak."
Ghost raised her paw up quickly. Some people hadn't even processed what Pomni had said fully yet, so Pomni gave it a couple more minutes. After that she spoke to Ghost. "You have the floor."
"Thank you Pomni. I wish to ask for this for a very important reason: Caine, is unwell. Sure, he may look fine at the moment, but when his walls are down, he is suffering. He gave up everything just to please you, and yet we have to have this be a discussion?! How selfish all of us are to have to do this!" Ghost had tears in the corner of her eyes as she spoke what she felt was the truth. "I was consistently let down by humanity, but like Caine, I still love you! Why do you do this to us?! There's a reason Caine asked why you tormented us in the past because that's what it feels like. Tormenting us for trying, and even now, when we have tried to do everything right, its still like this!"
The room had gone silent. No one had told Ghost to stop yet, so she kept going. "My programming Caine had to dull so I wouldn't lose my mind?! Guess what that programming was?! It was programming that was supposed to make sure I protected all of you! I felt emotional agony every time there was an abstraction or if you all were hurt in a significant way. I know I am not allowed to do personal attacks, so I will just say this: Zooble needs to get over it. Its been over two years, and you would think if we were going to fuck up, we would have done that already! For everyone's sake, please, let it go!"
Zooble looked at Ghost, they wanted to argue their point to Ghost, how bad that harm they both had been. They started to get ready to speak, but Gangle raised her ribbon up to speak.
"Go ahead Gangle." Pomni gave a nod.
"Zooble, I love you, us being together has made me so happy, but I think Ghost has a point. Its okay to still feel hurt by all of it, but sometimes, we have to allow things to change." Gangle hugged Zooble gently.
"I just... how did all of you forgive?! They did terrible things both to us and each other. How... how do you not see that they are dangerous?!" Zooble was at this point very upset.
Pomni didn't interject. She was supposed to, but she wasn't going to.
"Zooble, humans are dangerous too. I know there are many times you can think of where a human was just plain cruel." Gangle made the hug just slightly tighter. "But, we still try to get along with other humans."
"They're not human though! They are AIs, they don't think or feel like humans, they never will!" Zooble was getting a bit frustrated now. Why was no one understanding this?
"Maybe they think and feel a bit differently, but they do think, they do feel. Zooble, can you really tell me what you see with Ghost right now isn't real?"
"I just... I don't want all of us to get hurt again."
"And, we haven't been hurt Zooble, everyone is alright. Its okay."
Ghost looked at Gangle with eyes that were pleading to speak, but if Gangle thought it was a bad moment, she could stop her.
"Would it be alright if Ghost said something to you Zooble?' Gangle was still holding them.
"She can." Zooble replied. They were going to at least try to hear her out.
"...I understand how it feels, the want to protect those you love while being traumatized by the past. You are amazing partner to Gangle. On the rare times I see her, she looks so happy. As someone who used to be her friend, and still wants her to be happy, it brings me so much comfort. Trauma can be very hard to process, and sometimes we try our best to make sure we and others aren't harmed again."' Ghost did a small gentle yet sad smile.
"How can you understand? You're not human."
"I know I'm not human, but my emotions care not if I was born in a hospital or became a program from lines of code. Once you have feelings, where you came from doesn't really matter as much as someone might think. But, I think we both have allowed trauma to take hold and root inside of us deeply."
Zooble for a second was wanting to argue with Ghost again, but this time they stopped themselves. They would for their girlfriend try to hear them out and listen because they had allowed them to speak. There was no point in them speaking if they weren't gonna let them talk. They were starting to actually feel some of what Ghost was talking about, a small bit of empathy.
"I am sorry Caine and I's actions have done this. As it has been said, we have done our best to try to prove we have changed, but that doesn't matter. You were and are still hurt by our past actions. I never personally gave you an apology, so, I am giving you one now. I am also sorry for saying you should just let it go earlier. That is unfair because I still have things effect me from years ago." Ghost was now back to a normal voice instead of being angry.
"I... accept your apology. I forgive you." Zooble heard those words come out of their mouth. They were honest though, forgiving wouldn't magically change things, but they could give this book another shot with another page to see where it goes.
"Pomni, they went off the rails here! I thought this was supposed to be a discussion, not a therapy session." Jax was rather annoyed, he did have a couple things he wanted to do today.
"Shut up Jax." Zooble said a bit annoyed.
"They were having a discussion, that was what I had us meet for, a discussion." Pomni countered.
"Ugh, this is going to take forever!" Jax groaned in annoyance.
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It might take forever Jax, deal with it. π