I've just done the Emergent Behaviour quest with the Railroad still intact, this time. Glory says that G5 was strong; she resisted several mindwipe attempts by the Institute. They knew each other there before Glory escaped. They were friends, 'like family' even.

Glory becomes her body's custodian after G5, terrified of being caught and mindwiped by the SRB again, opts for new memories, essentially a personality transplant, despite Glory's attempts to dissuade her.

MacCready and Daisy greeted each other like old friends. The exchange was so warm and natural that it caught Maya a little off guard, especially with someone as reserved as Mac.

She listened to them finish up the details of getting the cure to Duncan absentmindedly, not really registering what they were saying as she found her mind drifting back to their moment in Med-Tek.

“So we leave tonight? Alright, I'd better get things ready for the road. Thanks Daisy.”

The statement jolted her out of the daydream and brought her attention back to the mercenary who was about to tell her goodbye.

“Tonight huh?” Maya repeated, the smile on her face more forced than what it should have been. She knew this was coming from the moment she’d learned of his family’s existence. “That’s good. Your family needs you back as soon as possible.”

“I’ll only be gone a few weeks. A month or two at most. How ever long it takes for Duncan to be well enough for the road.” MacCready rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, looking anywhere but her eyes. He refused to look her in the eyes since the basement of Med-Tek.

“I’m sure the Commonwealth will survive until you get back.” Maya teased and nudged his arm playfully, refusing to let the last time she saw him to be so uncomfortable. With a deep breath, she pulled him into her arms, wrapping them around his neck and squeezing as tightly as she could. “Just make sure your baby is okay. We’ll all be here if you want to come back, but family comes first, right? Give Duncan a hug from his Aunt Maya. I think I’ve earned the title.” She teased and let him go. The tears were burning in their ducts, but she refused to let them leak out and ruin this. 

MacCready’s face burned a fierce shade of scarlet as they broke apart. With a flustered cough and an awkward nod, he made a fumbled excuse about needing to head over to Diamond City for supplies and turned to depart.

Maya watched him go and could have sworn she’d heard a sniffle as he went through the gate. To prevent her own tears from finally breaking free, she resigned herself to the belief that the sound was nothing more than the wind. .

She continued to stare after him for several long moments after he’d gone and was thankful that he left the way he did. She’d always hated goodbye’s anyway.

He’d been like this all morning and her patience was wearing thin. 

He didn’t want her to investigate the distress signal they picked up. 

He didn’t care that he woke up every creature from HQ to Med-Tek in some vain attempt to shoot away his nerves. 

He didn’t even care about scavenging for caps or valuables along the way - the final confirmation to Maya that he was not as okay as he claimed. In the many weeks they’d been travelling together, she’d never seen the mercenary this focused, or this scared.

“I’m just trying to find any more information on this ‘Prevent’ so Curie can study it.  It was a research drug, so anything we can find out about it will be good to know before we give it to Duncan, right?” Maya retorted, a little sharper than she’d intended, before placing the file back on the desk. It was only a sign-in register but her point remained valid all the same.

“Ah Monsieur MacCready, you are exhibiting symptoms of extreme agitation and anxiety. May I suggest the administration of a minute dosage of Med-X to assist you in this mission?” Curie asked eagerly as she floated by. 

By the time the chem had been dispensed - MacCready had already angrily barged past them into the offices at the back of the building. Shots and curses could be heard bouncing off the walls in the distance and Maya couldn’t help but wince as she readied her gun.

“We’d better go and make sure he doesn’t get torn apart in there. I’m sorry he’s being so...difficult, right now. He’s just worried about his son.”

Curie nodded in acknowledgement and followed behind her companion. She understood the logic and reasoning of a father being concerned over the welfare of a sick child. She understood the physical signs of worry and the effect it had on a human’s psyche. But she did not know what it felt like. She did not understand why her attempt to relieve him of this problem was not what he desired. Logically, it made no sense. So much of human behaviour made no logical sense to Curie. Over two centuries of studying them and she still did not understand what it meant to be a human. Something that bothered her more than ever now she was around so many different human beings every day.

The infestation of ferals guided them from the executive’s terminal on the third floor, all the way down the research centre’s subterranean levels where the elusive cure was apparently stored. 

MacCready barely spoke a word to Maya unless it was encouraging her to hurry up when she, Curie and Dogmeat lagged behind him on the way to the laboratory. Curie,  herself, was quieter than usual too and it made the atmosphere particularly more sombre - An impressive feat, especially when taking into consideration that the entire building had spent the last two centuries as the eternal resting place of Med-Tek’s more unfortunate employees; the poor souls who had been trapped here when the bombs fell had succumbed to the radiation instead of being granted the sweet release of death.

There were many fates worse than death in this world, but turning into a feral ghoul was one that Maya feared most.

The last of the frustrated screams echoed out from the lab by the time Maya and Curie had caught up, leaving only the frustrated heavy breathing and cursing of their companion as he attempted to search the debris for his promised goal. MacCready was the most impressive shot she’d ever witnessed anyway, but today the anticipation made him especially efficient, something she understood probably too well in her own search to save her son. It was making him reckless too.

In fact, MacCready had been so wrapped up in clearing out the ferals with almost vindictive haste, he’d completely overlooked the bright, red, auto-injecting syringe that lay in plain view on the abandoned workstation.

“Mademoiselle! Is that the item we are looking for? The cure for Monsieur MacCready’s child?” Curie had noticed the chem at almost the exact same moment Maya did.

“I think so, Curie. Can you take a look at it for me to be sure?” Maya replied, picking it up and examining it closely. 

From the opposite corner of the lab, half way through ripping a drawer open, MacCready heard the robot’s announcement and had started to make his way back over to them. 

When he saw that Maya did indeed have the injector in her hand - it was the first time she’d seen those big blue eyes light up all day. 

“We did it… holy crap, we actually did it! We just gave Duncan a fighting chance to live.” He exclaimed as he took the cure from Maya’s hands and pocketed it. Even then, he didn’t move even an inch away from her, a detail that Maya couldn’t help but register despite not wanting to. Before she could finish scolding herself for letting herself think such ridiculous things when it came to a married man - MacCready placed a trembling hand on her arm. 

“I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to pay you back for this… I owe you big time.” 

Maya shook her head incredulously in an attempt to avoid his piercing gaze. 

“Mac...This is a friendship, not a business contract. All I care about is curing your son.” 

MacCready refused to let her look away. With one hand he cupped her cheek and forced her face back him, with the other he took her hand.

The surprise of his touch forced her to turn and face him, making the lack of space between them that much more highlighted. Immediately she felt her ivory cheeks flush and her heart started to race.

“I know you do.” He sighed with a dopey smile and moved his head in closer, so close that the impact of his breath sent shivers down her spine. “I'm just used to people taking rather than giving. Maybe one day I'll realize that you're different.” Before she could answer, he’d bridged what little remained of the gap between them and connected their lips.

It was clumsy and almost forceful in his haste. Not bad… just different than what she was used to.

Maya didn’t pull away, too stunned that he’d finally broke the tension between them and kissed her to really respond at first. So many questions flooded her mind and none she could bring herself to ask, the most prominent one wouldn’t stay quiet in her mind - “What about your wife?” The one he’d mentioned back in HQ. She was about to push him off and actually ask it when he did the job for her. Just as abrupt and unexpected as the kiss had started, MacCready pulled away and ended it without a word. Before any awkwardness could form, Dogmeat and Curie returned back to them after sweeping the laboratory for anything useful. 

“Madame, we discovered a small storage unit of medical supplies and I took the initiative to annex anything useful for our mission. May I suggest we leave this place if we have found what we are looking for? My systems are detecting high levels of radiation in these laboratories. Caution is strongly recommended.”

“Don’t worry about it, Curie, we can go now. The last step is to get the Cure to Daisy in Goodneighbor.” Mac smiled at Maya and started to make his way to the elevator.. “With her caravan contacts, she's the only one I trust to get this to Duncan on time.” He glanced back at his slightly stupefied companion and cocked his head to encourage her to follow. “This is the last favor I'm going to ask, I promise. Let’s go.”

“G-Goodneighbor? Right. Sure! Let’s go!” Maya nodded confidently and composed herself before following in his wake. 

Even though her heart was still racing as she awkwardly took her place next to him in the elevator, one thing was perfectly clear by the time they got back to the surface and left the building: He did not want to talk about what had happened between them. 

Here are 3 simple everyday examples of emergent behavior:

1. Traffic jams – Each driver just wants to go fast, but together, cars can form slow-moving traffic patterns without anyone planning it.

2. School of fish – Each fish follows simple rules like “don’t hit others,” yet the group can move in beautiful, coordinated waves.

3. Crowd applause – People clap at their own pace, but soon everyone claps in rhythm, creating a pattern none planned.

When faced with complexity, we tend to seek order and simplicity.  Most of us respond negatively to the uncertainty associated with complex systems and their apparent unpredictability.  Complex systems can be characterised as large networks operating using simple rules but without central control which results in self-organising behaviour and non-trivial emergent behaviour.  Emergent behaviour is…

Title: Microbial Ecologies

Category: #robotic fabrication #digital simulation #emergent behaviour

Author: Fran Castillo, Peter Malaga, Yogesh Karekar and Priyanka Narula

Research Center : Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia / IAAC

Year: 2013

Url: http://francastillo.net/Microbial-Ecologies

Description: Microbial Ecologies (ME) is proposing a speculative scenario in which is able to explore new robotic fabrication processes as a framework for investigating the generation of (bio)artificial systems. These systems allow us to regenerate and protect the soil erosion and encourage healthy plant growth using interconnected 3D fiber systems. The research aims to explore a heterogeneity of fiber structures at a broad range of spatial scales. The heterogeneity and interconnectivity of the 3D fiber system within soil makes it a biodiverse microhabitat for the diverse microbial population and vegetal systems. The system that ME is proposing has a pivotal role in microbial interactions, therefore It is able to amplify the biodiversity of ecosystems. Microbial Ecologies focuses on the development of fiber structures to characterize soil at multiples scales that are relevant for micro organisms.