Beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror, which we still are just able to endure, and we are so awed because it serenely disdains to annihilate us. Every angel is terrifying.

— Rainer Maria Rilke
Chapter 12, Page 3

Chapter 12, Page 3

If you haven’t noticed, the A.I. core in Fumiaki’s head is a 12-sided die.  I was tempted to have Jacob roll it with a D&D joke…but that was probably too geeky for a lifetime army grunt.  Besides, this is in Britain so it’s Lola’s game.  Jacob is just crashing it.

↓ Transcript
Fumiaki: Para --
Jacob: Roger, it's done.
Stupid guy: You there -- freeze!
Lola: Weapons down, all of you.

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Discussion (7)¬

  1. Sonja says:

    Oh no, it’s Lola!!! But who does she mean with “all of you”? Her funny companions?
    So, Jacob, now it’s time to roll a natural 20!

  2. SpectralTime says:

    …So the question becomes, will Lola listen to reason?

    Eh, probably not. The sunk-cost fallacy is too strong with this one.

    Nerd joke: guess the d12 isn’t just for barbarians anymore!

    And, to cap off this rambling post devoid of cohesion: why *did* Fumiaki suddenly go insane once he *knew* he was an A. I.? I mean, I thought that an A. I.’s inherent instability came from having a merely human ability to cope with a vastly inhuman intellect. Why would *believing* yourself to be human be any use?

  3. Gin says:

    @SpectralTime

    It could be that believing himself to be human gave him restrictions on how he thought.

    If you believed, completely and utterly, that you were incapable of jumping a five foot gap even with a running start, would you try? The AI Fumiaki’s thought processes may have been affected in a similar way; if you’re human, you can’t possibly think about everything at once! Right? Something like that.

    That’s just my theory, anyway.

  4. Matt40000 says:

    @Sonja
    Jacob is unarmed. He’s also the most dangerous man on the planet, in person at least.

    There’s no chance that there’s not enough firepower trained on him to turn the town into a crater.

  5. Ryan says:

    Jacob could have a future as a surgeon, such grace! 🙂

  6. The Sidhekin says:

    Um, that’s not a 12-sided die. 14-sided, perhaps …

    … not that it matters, mind.

  7. D4rkLigh7 says:

    hehe, I like how the guy that said ” You there — freeze!” is named stupid guy in the transcript.