More than a Copy

I mentioned that I think I’m ready to close up Copy’s story. I still love RPing Copy and would love to continue RPing him. Maybe not this version of him, but a new version.

However I realize that I’m disconnected from the MM RP community and feel like there will be no point in RPing any version of him as long as that’s true. And those I’m not disconnected with are either friends of mine or people who keep dropping threads one me.

So, to sum it up, I’m done with this version of Copy, would love to RP a new version of Copy but do not see a reason to do that since I’m obviously not RPing with people like I used to.

So that’s were I am right now.

“Tell him I said hi and I’ll probably see him next time.” It was a pity that it was unsafe for the two Copy Robots to meet. Sure, they could each see what the other was like through Treble’s memories if they wanted to, but Bass wished he could have introduced them to each other. He thought they would probably get along.

Copy was focused on the computer again. Bass gave him a gentle nudge in the arm. “You ready to go or do you want to look at it for a while longer?” He certainly couldn’t blame him for being entranced by it.

Copy gave a glance at Bass before looking at the computer again. Bass trusted these people to do a good job. The copybot was of course nervous trusting complete strangers to program his children, but he also trusted Bass. He gave the SWN’s hand a squeeze before turning completely towards him.

It was a relief to see Copy finally allowing himself to open up to the idea again. After all, this wouldn’t be happening if not for his desire to have a family. “Not if you don’t want to,” Bass assured him. “You’ve seen the blueprints. You know what they look like. Besides, you’ll see them before they’re activated anyway. If there are any last-minute changes you wanna make then it shouldn’t take long.” Modifying a few details on the bodies would be far easier than changing the coding and spending another week bug testing the changes.

“We should head back home. We’ve got some planning to do.” He gave Copy’s hand a slight squeeze before turning toward Spira. “Thanks again for all this. I’ll get that data for you as soon as I can.”

Copy wasn’t sure if he was ready to see the bodies. To see a possible face to this programming. It was sort of scary to think about the fact this was happening. They were going to be parents. His eyes flickered back up at the coding.

“We can encourage them to be adventurous later on,” Bass pointed out, knowing he at least would be doing exactly that, “once we know they’re not gonna get themselves in danger because of it.” He couldn’t shake the image of one of them falling down the stairs into the dungeons or slipping past the guards and being attacked outside. They might be lying there badly hurt for hours before they were found.

He placed a quick kiss on Copy’s cheek before taking away the arm around his shoulders. “There are plenty of other qualities to use. All three of us are stubborn as hell too. These two wouldn’t really feel like our kids if they didn’t share that. But for the rest of it we’d better get together and talk about it first, make sure we’re all on the same page.”

There was a giggle from Copy. If there was anything they were definitely, it was stubborn. He wasn’t sure he wanted to deal with their kids being just as stubborn as they were. Maybe a little less so. Didn’t want to get frustrated at the kids in the same way they got frustrated with each other.

That was something Bass had not put much thought into. He had been ready to accept them no matter what their personalities were like, but of course Spira needed some idea of where they should start. Otherwise they would be flat and emotionless like early robots until they started to develop their own personalities.

“Not too independent or adventurous,” he commented. “Not at first. We don’t need them sneaking off alone all the time. They’ve gotta learn how to keep themselves safe first.” Even in the castle there were potential risks. And of course they would need to be taught why it was unsafe to leave the castle’s walls before the idea to sneak out and explore the woods crossed their minds.

“That might have to be something we talk about together at home. I’ll bring in the notes for you next time.” Blues needed to be involved in that discussion too.

There was a bit of a snort from Copy. “That eliminates two of our biggest qualities.” All three of them were pretty independent, and Copy and Bass were at least very adventurous. It would be something to think about though. Copy could at least think that Blues would want a calm type of child, although Copy also couldn’t help but think how fun it would be to follow a child as they explore and get into things.

Of course he was scared. He had already lost part of his adopted family and the lost the chance to have children once when the Reploids disappeared. But that was not going to happen again. Spira and Proteus could definitely take care of themselves. This entire island was protected, in fact. No one was going to disappear this time and the programming was certain to get finished.

Bass joined Copy at the computer, placing one arm around his shoulders comfortingly. “It’s gonna be okay.” His eyes flickered briefly toward Proteus but he too tried to ignore the glare. If the Darkloid had so far allowed him to visit every few days to check up on Spira and her work, there was no reason for him to change his mind now. The job was past the halfway point and he would have less reason to visit so often once it was over.

Even to someone like Bass, who knew only the basic coding he had taught himself to fix and upgrade Alto and could barely understand most of what he was seeing now, it was clear that what he was looking at on the screen was expertly done. Looking at it gave him a similar feeling to when he had first held the tiny hand that Roll had been making. It was hard not to be overwhelmed with emotion. “There they are…”

Copy was not an expert in code at all. He understood some basic information and understood how to read it. However this was definitely more advance than any coding he had ever laid eyes on. Whatever was being created here looked beyond Robot Masters’ coding, although it didn’t bring as much comfort as he would like.

More complex coding meant more chances for bugs and glitches.

“We’ll probably take awhile on the debugging process to make sure it’s all in working order.” Spira said as she moved to stand beside them. “Most of the programming is pretty similar for both children, with slight differences. I actually had been wondering what kind of base personalities you would like for them.”

“Base personalities?”

Once again Bass was completely focused on Copy, wishing he knew the right words to say. Nothing seemed to be sinking in. He wished that he could just go into Copy’s head and rearrange everything so he would start actually caring about the children he had wanted so badly.

“Copy.” There was a moment of hesitation as Bass struggled to find words, but soon he had stepped in front of Copy to meet his gaze and had taken hold of his shoulders. “I know you want to protect yourself,” he stated quietly. “That’s what this is all about, isn’t it? But I promised I wouldn’t try to get you involved until I knew for sure it was gonna happen. Just look around you. Look at this equipment. These computers are probably more powerful than anything we’ve got back home. And Spira and Proteus are made of coding that can move and act without needing a robotic body. They’re more advanced than the Reploids.”

He gestured around them with one hand. “Reploids have probably passed through this place too. Their information is in the database Spira’s using. And your alternate is helping out sometimes, and he created their other brother! Copy, this is really happening. I found the best people I could for the job. Maybe our kids’ bodies won’t be perfect, but their programming is gonna be better than anything even Pump could have written. I need you to open your eyes and see that. If you don’t, our kids will be finished and active and you’ll still be trying to ignore them. Don’t shut yourself out of our family. We’re making it a reality for you.”

Of course Bass and Blues understood why Copy didn’t have his heart in the children. He was sure that something was going to come back and try to hurt him. That somehow these children will die or something horrific would happen to them. He didn’t want that pain as much as he wanted children of his own. 

However Bass had a point. Several actually. This place might be more advance than the Reploids, meaning the program would end up better results here than if they had left it to Pump. Perhaps the programming would go beyond Reploids. Slowly Copy moved to grab Bass’ hand into his, his head moving to bump his forehead with Bass’. “I’m scared.”

Bass reached out to take the device, glancing down at it briefly. “Yeah, I’ll do that. I’ll get as many as I can from as many worlds with robots as I can find.” Starting with Elec. Treble could help him with that if Copy wasn’t willing to. Maybe the young Reploid could still help even without coming here.

“Anything else you need? I think by now you’ve got the final version of our notes on what we want. Unless Copy wants to make some changes. He’s been less involved in all this than the rest of us.” He glanced at Copy, hoping he was finally starting to realize that Spira knew what she was doing.

“Let’s take a look and see what you think. You’re the one with the clearest idea of what you want.”

There was hesitation from Copy, staring down Spira with a slightly narrowed gaze. Now that he could finally see her, he had to admit she looked a lot like Roll, while Proteus did look a lot like Blues. It was kind of unsettling, although what was more upsetting was thinking of how much Bass was putting faith into these two.

With a tired sigh he gave a nod. “Yeah okay. I might as well. You did drag me out here against my will.”

If only Bass could convince Copy to actually look at the two siblings. The way he was ignoring them felt like an insult to all of the hard work they - or at least mostly Spira - had done for them.

“That’s fine. It’s a complicated job. Finding and working out all the bugs can come later.” His voice shook slightly at the thought of how close they were to completion. Of course even after the initial programming was done the bug testing and final touches could take weeks more, but he could wait. It would be worth it in the end to make sure their children were perfect, with no chance of something going badly wrong.

“That offer to bring the Reploid here still stands,” he added to Spira, before turning to explain to Copy. “Even though Elec’s a kid I thought they might be helpful somehow. Maybe there’d be a way to look at their programming and see how it’s done.” Although considering their programming was apparently protected it didn’t seem likely to help much, especially since they didn’t have any programming knowledge of their own to contribute. The existing database probably had more information than Elec could give. Not to mention he would have a great deal of trouble getting them here without them freaking out on him.

Proteus gave a growl, resulting in his sister giving a comforting pat on the arm. “That’s quite alright. I think we found a lot of good resources. If anything it might be good if we could find a way to get even more information on robots in the multiverse.” She gave a grin. “Which I’ve been sort of working on a small device so that perhaps you could download any you come across?”

She moved over to one of the tables, Copy switch his gaze towards her as the item seemed to suddenly float. It was kind of unnerving and finally caused him to start switching between all of the abilities and frequencies in his eyes. “We used our Copy’s ability to download information and memories on others and narrowed it down so you should be able to copy AI information from robots.”

“He’s my Copy,” Bass agreed, frowning slightly at his companion’s rudeness. He hadn’t expected that he would act like this. Even when Spira motioned for them to come in he stayed where he was at first, reaching out for Copy’s other hand.

“Come on,” he murmured, keeping his voice low but aware that Spira would be close enough to hear anyway. “She didn’t have to do this for us. If not for her we’d still be stuck not knowing who to ask for help. Just take a look at what she’s done so far, all right? You’ll change your mind once you’ve seen it. And don’t treat Proteus badly. He’ll probably kill us and destroy the code.”

He led the way into the lab, still keeping a secure grip on Copy’s hand. “Have you run into any problems with it since I was last here?”

Copy gave another sigh. His heart wasn’t into this, even if he knew Bass’ was. The fact that one of the people that was suppose to be helping here could kill them and destroy the apparent good work didn’t sit well with the copybot. He followed Bass, his eyes taking in the items within the lab.

“I’m still fiddling around with the free will program.” Spira stated. “Having the ability to look through various different AI within the mansion’s computer systems help.” Not only were there their own AI to look at, but many other robots that had came to the mansion. Even a version of Bass’ was in the system. “It still needs some fine tuning... Oh, and I’m Spira by the way.” She sadi with a wave at Copy, even if was clear he wasn’t paying attention.

As they came up to the door leading directly into the lab, Bass paused and turned his full attention to Copy. It was probably best to give him a few warnings so he didn’t think this was some kind of sick joke when the lab appeared empty.

“You’re not gonna see anything at first,” he warned. “You’ll be able to hear her, though. And probably her brother too. They can’t be seen normally so you’ll have to adjust your vision to another frequency. It’ll make sense soon. Oh yeah, and when you do see them they’ll look pretty familiar to you.”

He adjusted his own vision even as he reached out to knock. “Spira, it’s me!” With that he took Copy’s hand and squeezed it securely in his own before opening the door.

Copy gave a look of confusion and then unamusement before the door opened suddenly. “Bass!” Came a voice. Spira couldn’t help but smile towards the SWN before her gaze flickered towards his companion. “And... Copy?” A slight pause. “Your Copy, correct? Because it sure doesn’t look like our... Er...”

Copy’s face was with a deep frown as he stepped forward to feel the air. Spira took a slight step back. “Ah, right. Um, you’re going to have to adjust your vision a bit.”

“It might be a waste of my time.” Copy replied.

Spira gave an unsure look towards Bass before gesturing for them to enter. “Hey Proteus, load up the children AI!”

It was easy to notice the fact that Copy seemed quiet and not at all enthusiastic about this. Even as they approached the mansion and Bass’ core hummed more loudly from anticipation Copy didn’t seem to care.

“… Look, I know you don’t have high hopes about this. But I think I’ve found the best person for the job. Maybe better than the Reploids. You’ll understand what I mean when you see her.” Or when he didn’t see her, rather. Once Copy learned that she was an AI herself surely he would realize this was ideal. She dealt with coding all the time. Plus this world’s Copy was helping and he had already created another living AI being, although Bass had so far not mentioned that fact.

“I’ve brought her all the changes we’ve wanted to make and she’s programmed them to your specifications. You’ll like what she’s done, I know it.”

There was a doubtful look on Copy’s face that he didn’t bother to hide. He was pretty sure the only people that would be able to program the children would be his family members that were currently missing. Surely whoever this person Bass found to do the program wasn’t nearly as good as Bass said she was.

As they approached the mansion, Copy eyed the security camera near the door, one where one of the Darkloids glanced at to see their visitors. “The robot is back.” Proteus said to his sister. Spira gave her own smile and a nod before she quickly went to the door, pausing for a moment before turning towards the large screen.

“Wait... is that Copy?”