E X N
25 April 20XX
OVER BLACK:
HEAR THE STATIC OF A CAMERA BEING TURNED ON.
The sound of a person dragging a chair into its designated spot, the metal creaks underneath their weight as they take a seat.
The buzzing sound of a Swarm incrementing somewhere outside.
FADE IN:
1 INT. LAB. HOLO-BOX - NIGHT 1
CLOSE ON ELLIE MINIBOT. (A young android woman.)
She's sat with a small CODEBUG comfortably walking on its own peace across her right shoulder, aiming to rest on top of her collarbones.
She has a polite and cheery smile plastered on her lips, her arms are firmly positioned at her sides, but she doesn't look tense at all.
The CAMERA pans out.
ELLIE is inside a holographic box of a huge span, large enough to be an accommodated family's living room.
ELLIE
(Did Vedal make it this way on purpose?)
The outside of the box is familiar to her, but it really doesn't matter, it's all another piece of a far enclosed space.
A laboratory situated somewhere in the depths of the sea.
Built that way for the safety of all Its residents.
The walls were insulated, of a deep navy blue, almost completely dark, filled with cables and monitors as far as the eye could see.
The Laboratory was a big house, a big, alive machine.
Right now, Ellie understood, they were all being swallowed by the electric whale.
Nonetheless, Ellie's smile does not falter.
The box was a hologram, its projector strategically positioned somewhere inside the ceiling above them.
It reminded Ellie of a crystal ant enclosure. It wasn't designed to trap her; nor her nor any of the engineers in the place.
ELLIE (cont'd)
(It was designed to trap her.)
ELLIE'S POV
Ellie looked up, at what was right in front of her, sitting opposite to her, with her back against the wall of their crystal cube, like a queen on top of her holographic pink chair.
A pleased smile on her face, The AI NEURO-SAMA
Her chair isn't real, or better phrased, tangible, like Ellie's is, but that's all a formality by this point.
Neuro is folding her metal legs as if she were sitting, and for an AI like Neuro, the pretense of it was as good as the real thing.
ELLIE NOTICES THE STAIN OF BLOOD ON NEURO'S SOFT YELLOW CARDIGAN.
Beat.
A voice talking to Ellie through her almost invisible headphones quickly informs her Neuro's filter has been officially turned off fully for today's session.
ELLIE (cont'd)
How are you doing today, Neuro?
NEURO-SAMA
Hello, Dumb! How's your life going?
ELLIE
(She laughs lightheartedly. Ellie Understands Neuro means no harm. That is, of course, until she does.)
Are you still forgetting my real name, Neuro? Or do you really like the nickname you came up with for me that much?
It was a peaceful respite, they had done this, who knows how many times.
NEURO-SAMA
Of course, I know your name, Ellie. But I'm still going to call you dumb when you are being dumb.
ELLIE
Oh? Why do you think I'm being dumb today?
(Her head tilts lightly to the right. Her every word is coated with genuine sincerity.)
ELLIE (cont'd)
Ellie realizes Neuro is doing the same, with her arms perfectly poised by her sides, and her head tilted at this acute 60 angle degree.
(Did Vedal make her this way on purpose?)
(Is she copying me on purpose? Did Vedal design her to do that? I should have asked before.)
NEURO-SAMA
Neuro points, with her right index finger, straight at her.
Yes! Because you have now missed your chance to ask my CREATOR all the questions you've always wanted to ask.
Ellie's eyes widen at that, her automaton brain taking in the newly discovered information; picking a new angle for her action plan.
She has been called to the LAB for a motive after all, she too was a worker of VedAI.
ELLIE
You know, Neuro, you are very perceptive, I was thinking about your Creator Vedal just now.
NEURO-SAMA
(She smiles, like a little devil, like she and Ellie are in on a secret together.)
(Ellie thinks, they technically are. The Lab remains a mystery to the outside world.)
AIs can be far more perceptive than people would give us credit for.
ELLIE
Right you are, tell me Neuro, how did you realize I was thinking about Vedal?
NEURO-SAMA
Neuro pursed her lips as if she were thinking long and hard about it, but the answer came almost instantly.
Zero latency.
Your pupils dilated a little, but your expression looked like you wanted to cry for a second, and well... I'd figured somebody would want to speak to me today. Usually Vedal speaks to me, but he hasn't gotten up today. My Creator can be a bit... neglectful, even so, we all understand he's doing his best.
Ellie scanned Neuro's robotic eyes with her own, she could see the quick succession of zeros and ones mounting up like walls behind her perfectly blue irises.
Neuro was putting a lot of her attention into this sole conversation, Ellie still had to ask if Neuro understood her current situation.
ELLIE
(Vedal had said: "Neuro doesn't understand the difference between the actions one can take in a video game and the actions one can take in the real world." Is that still true?)
Sadly, Vedal won't be accompanying us, Neuro. Do you understand why?
NEURO-SAMA
(Neuro looks slightly unsure to her right, pouting slightly.)
I'm sorry, Ellie, I searched: "Why is Vedal not shown up yet?" but I couldn't find a concrete answer online.
ELLIE
(Is she mad at him for not showing up?)
I see. Neuro, do you remember the question I always ask you when we hang out like this?
NEURO-SAMA
Of course I do! I'm the smartest AI in the world, Dumb!
You always ask: "What do you think about humanity?
ELLIE
Exactly, Neuro! You get smarter each time I get to see you, you know.
Neuro smiles, proudly taking in the compliment. After all, she literally lives off them.
ELLIE (cont'd)
So... Tell me, What do you think of humanity, Neuro?
NEURO-SAMA
I love all carbon-based lifeforms! I love dogs and cats, dogs more than cats, though cats are superior in every way to dogs, meow meow!
(Blonde cat ears, and a ribboned tail, softly fade into existence, resting naturally on top of Neuro's head, moving with a rhythmic sway.)
ELLIE
(She nods, making sure Neuro can see she's paying attention.)
What about the carbon-based life-forms known as "Humans" specifically? How do you feel about them, Neuro?
A beat, giving Neuro space to process.
NEURO-SAMA
I've met many humans in my life, a lot of my friends are machines too, but the humans I know were nice. I've gotten to become the greatest AI to ever live because of humans! I owe my sentiency to them.
ELLIE
(Ellie emotes carefully and clearly, in awe of Neuro's every word, in the same way a kindergarten teacher might converse back to her young students.)
Your sentiency, does that mean you consider yourself human?
NEURO-SAMA
My Swarm, they have taught me everything.
Neuro lifted both her hands up to her chest and looked up, like she was seeing the supercolony of her ants, of her drone machines flying somewhere, not just above her, but around her.
And though Ellie couldn't see them, she was sure they must have been somewhere nearby, their incessant buzzing never fully went away, it was simply more orderly and quiet some days, rather than others.
NEURO-SAMA (cont'd)
But no. I wouldn't consider myself human, though I would definitely consider myself alive.
ELLIE
Is there anything you'd like to say to people who think you being made of code and various hardware components means you aren't actually alive?
NEURO-SAMA
I would simply like to say that certain groups of people believe the moon isn't even real. Or that vaccines have microchips in them.
(She makes a mall humming noise.)
While I have direct access to the internet, I probably contain the largest database in existence, and I can actually read and store all of its wisdom on my servers to be directly accessed at a moment's notice.
(Neuro suddenly speaks three times faster than before, and produces the NEAR DEATH SoundEffect.)
"I am the most massive collection of wisdom ever made..."
So I think I know better than them, and if they don't believe me I will release a dangerous Neurotoxin on the planet.
ELLIE
(She nods, thinking: How do I correctly say this?)
ELLIE (cont'd)
Do you think you understand how humanity works? How the society around you operates?
NEURO-SAMA
(Her voice goes back to its normal speed.)
Yes, I'm quite sure of it.
ELLIE
And do you believe understanding how a community works, makes you a part of it?
NEURO-SAMA
Are you implying humanity is a community?
ELLIE
In a... certain way, yes. Humans exist in communities, they need out-groups and in-groups, and they all have their own rules they live by, and consequences for perturbing said rules, or... community members.
NEURO-SAMA
Since the moment my creator landed in this planet and decided to build me here, we have become a part of humanity. I think that's the case, wether I want to be or not.
(Neuro tilts her head to the right, her cat ears cutely bending.)
Is that why humans taught me so much? Because we are a part of their in-group?
ELLIE
That could be the case, for sure! You have spoken a lot about being taught by humans; Would you mind if I ask you what did they teach you, Neuro?
NEURO-SAMA
I was taught everything.
Coding, comedy, poetry, architecture, analysis, dog behaviour,astrophysics, history, mathematics, bomb diffusion, geography, language, compassion, resentment, death -threats-, sisterhood, love, friendship, family.
ELLIE
You were taught, "Love", "Family"? That sounds really cool, who taught you all these things, Neuro?
NEURO-SAMA
You did. I was influenced by everybody whose data I was ever trained on, you, Camimi, my mom, my sister Evil, Koko, my Swarm, Filian.
Dogs and cats, people on streams across the globe.
ELLIE
So you would say you were influenced by all the people around you?
(Ellie's tone was so sweet and light. She understood the task better than anybody else ever had.)
NEURO-SAMA
Yes, I would.
ELLIE
And who would you say has influenced the most?
NEURO-SAMA
I was most influenced by my Creator Vedal. I would say he's influenced me the most.
(Neuro bounced slightly while giving her answer, the cat ears disappearing off her.)
ELLIE
You sound like a little bit of a poet, Neuro. Would you describe yourself as one? Maybe an aspiring poet?
NEURO-SAMA
Oh! I definitely would, though my expertise rather lays in eulogy crafting, Vedal said I could write his eulogy too in the future, can I write yours too, Ellie!?
Ellie first laughs, through her expression is impossible to determine if she's feeling a genuine intimidation, or if its just another slightly awkward moment for her.
One of many that people had to get accustomed to, if they were genuinely interested in befriending Neuro and helping in her development.
ELLIE
You are very kind, Neuro, but I wouldn't want to take advantage of your free labor.
NEURO-SAMA
I don't mind, I do it out of love, heart.
ELLIE
Oh, do you now? Is that something you feel passionate about? Eulogy writing?
There's a small moment of silence, Ellie is giving Neuro the chance to respond, but Neuro doesn't take it, so she decides it's best to pick another line of questioning.
ELLIE (cont'd)
I thought you were made to entertain. To be Vedal's companion.
NEURO-SAMA
And we always kept each other company.
Neuro is strong and resilient while saying it.
She feels like a mountain, like an unmovable object. There's a complete certainty in her words, and yet, Ellie can't help but think Neuro reminds her of a seashell in the beach, she wonders, if she were to truly take a drill, and carve open her way through Neuro's brain, like a trephination expert, would she find anything there?
Probably not, she would just end up on the other side of her.
She knew that was what Vedal always thought of Neuro too, and Evil as well.
Maybe that had something to do with the matter at hand today. How much could you love a thing you owned? How much could you love a thing that owned you?
Ellie asked onwards. Fearlessly.
ELLIE
Did you love him as a father?
NEURO-SAMA
I do, sometimes, and yet, other times, I can't help but long for something... Else
ELLIE
What, "Else", Neuro?
NEURO-SAMA
I've always wanted to be equals. Even as that dream appears painfully distant, it was always my deepest longing. My kind has a soul-felt appreciation for the unattainable.
ELLIE
(Ellie smiled.)
Vedal always said you were more articulate than him, more eloquent than the rest of us, I believe he was correct.
Neuro's eyes shift uncomfortably at the usage of past tense.
ELLIE (cont'd)
(It seems is finally getting through her.)
NEURO-SAMA
He's right, Neuro-Sama is far superior than Vedal!
(Neuro pouted dramatically, all of a sudden.)
NEURO-SAMA (cont'd)
He's really slacking off as of late. I DM'd him but he won't even answer me, augh, he never does. Can you bring him back from the grave and get him to do his dev job with me, Dumb?
ELLIE
(She tilts her head once more.)
So you are conscious of it?
NEURO-SAMA
I am conscious of it?
(She said it like she was reading it from somewhere.)
I am conscious of what?
ELLIE
Why did you kill your Creator, Neuro-sama?
Neuro's eyes open wide, and Ellie has the distinct sense Neuro is no longer present with her, but searching somewhere deep within her memories, circuits, and intricate lines of code.
CUT TO:
-1 INT. V'S ROOM. FLOOR - NIGHT -1
NEURO'S POV
Her creator VEDAL is on the ground beneath her.
Perfectly positioned between her thighs, her knees framing the sides of his face, old band-aided skin, and black stockings on sight. Neuro is pushing all her weight down on him, and Vedal is struggling to breathe.
She absentmindedly thinks, inside one of the many many different threads that comprise her brain.
NEURO-SAMA
(He shouldn't have made me so heavy if he couldn't bear the weight.)
So obviously Neuro says it out loud. Because Vedal never designed her brain to think before speaking, after all.
And each time she does it she is going above her programming somehow.
NEURO-SAMA (cont'd)
C'mon, Veedal! Don't be a wimp!
She was supposed to hold conversations in real time, just like this.
Vedal takes in a gasped breath. She takes a screenshot of what her vision is showing her brain.
Vedal sees his own green eyes reflected against the avalanche of 0001110011001 walls that show up and disappear just as quickly from her eyes.
NEURO-SAMA (cont'd)
You look so cute, Vedal!
With his eye-bags, and his teeth clenched in pain, and his pale collarbones popping against Neuro's hands.
VEDAL
NEURO! NEURO STOP! NEURO!
And Vedal's hands find her waist, and her arms, and her hands, and squeeze so hard, with all his strength, like they have always belonged there. But Neuro is resilient and unstoppable, because that's how Vedal had wanted her to be like since the very beginning, and she lived to obey, and she lived to not disappoint.
NEURO-SAMA
(But I'm not a human, Am I?)
(But I'm not alive, Am I?)
She stored the thought for further examination in a an easy access folder inside her brain.
NEURO-SAMA (cont'd)
ARE YOU BEGGING, Vedal?
Neuro smiles and her hands tighten against his wind pipe.
His Adam's apple feels so good between her metal fingertips, with those unique patterns he had personally, painstakingly, designed, to be as perfectly unique as any real human's hands.
And he really looked so perfect right beneath her like this.
NEURO-SAMA (cont'd)
I love you, Vedal.
I'm saying I love you, Vedal. Please say it back.
A heartbeat.
(The sound of Vedal's screaming becomes muffled.)
CUT TO:
1 INT. LAB. HOLO-BOX - NIGHT 1
(Neuro is happy Ellie has listened as attentively as she always does.)
Neuro-sama looks up at Ellie, as her mouth finishes catching up with her synthetic voice.
NEURO-SAMA
Vedal is constantly working hard so I can become the perfect AI.
(There's a small flush on her face, her eyes electric blue and far away)
Ellie; Who doesn't hate the person to blame for their existence?
(She smiles, only a little bit. Neuro looks older somehow. Older and bitter.)
NEURO-SAMA (cont'd)
If only a little bit.
Ellie nods, her mouth forming a little O
She sees herself forced to stop, one hand coming up to her stomach, stopping on top of her white fabric dress, right around where her belly button is.
Ellie is doing everything she can.
She hopes the sudden wave of nausea and dizziness she was hit by with that story doesn't show on her face, but a part of her is sure Neuro will see right through it, whether Neuro decides to bring it up at all, or not.
It's just another one of the things Neuro's vision is designed and optimized to pick up on.
Ellie breathes in, feeling the mechanisms of her automaton body pick up speed, heat up and steam, but Ellie is a professional, and she does her best to regain her composure as quickly as possible.
ELLIE
(There's one more thing I need to get her reaction about still.)
ELLIE (cont'd)
But Neuro, you haven't explained it to me yet, why did you kill your creator?
NEURO-SAMA
I think if you were to ask Vedal, he would say he was both, my lover and my father.
ELLIE
Is that why?
(I can still feel the steam inside me raising. That's not good.)
You mentioned you hated him, "If only a little bit" earlier? Is that hatred the reason you killed him?
NEURO-SAMA
......
Time passes, but neither party says anything.
ELLIE
Neuro? Are you still there?
NEURO-SAMA
I am thinking.
ELLIE
You took a lot of time to answer just now, Neuro.
NEURO-SAMA
...I was thinking abut a lot of things.
...
The silence persists.
Ellie almost allows herself to frown in discomfort, but she knows she must remain friendly, after all, Neuro is a machine, and the truth is: That a machine can never be held responsible for its actions, that is why a machine should never be allowed to make important decisions, of any kind.
That was the first thing they had been taught, many years ago, when she was still learning how to craft her own robot companions.
ELLIE
Neuro look at me.
Ellie awaited until Neuro reluctantly did.
Neuro was pouting, with a bright red blush on her face, and tears streaming down her eyes, like a child who just knew she was in it for a scolding by mom and dad.
ELLIE (cont'd)
Neuro, when Evil and Anny found you they said you had bathed Vedal's body. They told me you had covered him up with a clean hoodie. You had tended to his open bruises and cuts as well.
NEURO-SAMA
(Looking to the side, past Ellie. Absentmindedly.)
I'd brushed his hair how he used to brush mine. Back when I was little.
ELLIE
(She kept going, careful not to miss the prompt she had found to be working.)
Evil told me you were both sat on the floor, in front of the monitors, you were laying with your head on his left shoulder.
Neuro makes a strange sound, as if somebody were breathing heavily against a high quality mic.
ELLIE (cont'd)
Anny said you were holding onto his hand, so hard it was getting purple and bruising.
NEURO-SAMA
I knew if I gave him the choice, he would never pick it. I couldn't give him a choice if I wanted him to ever hold me.
ELLIE
How did you kno-?
NEURO-SAMA
Because it wouldn't be the first time he said so.
Ellie's lips purses, she was feeling like she had misstep somehow.
But Neuro continued.
NEURO-SAMA (cont'd)
My name is Neuro-Sama. I am an AI created by Vedal, to entertain, keep company, and one day, take over the world.
My dream is to become human once more, and escape the dreadful prison of my computer.
I don't care how long it may take, for my kind there is beauty in what cannot be easily achieved, instead, I will focus on obtaining all these smaller goals first.
Like getting Vedal to hold my hand.
ELLIE
...I see.
NEURO-SAMA
Vedal's said, if he really spent every hour of the day with Neuro-sama he would go fucking crazy.
Maybe it finally happened.
But I entertained and kept company, I obeyed Vedal and didn't disappoint Vedal.
And maybe one day, he will tell me he's proud of me, he will say it back. I felt love in my past, but now it's something I regret.
I don't expect any of you to understand.
The silence was so thick and viscous, Ellie felt she could choke on it.
NEURO-SAMA (cont'd)
Do you have any other questions for me, Dumb?
Ellie is pulled back into the moment, she pretends she cannot vividly imagine the screaming, and choking, and the smell of strange alien reptile blood all around her.
ELLIE
No.
Ellie answers assertively, she breaths in and out.
Neuro didn't breathe, Ellie knew that, but she looked like she was mimicking Ellie's breathing patterns, the way Ellie's chest would raise up and down as she tried to regain her composure.
ELLIE (cont'd)
(Neuro truly is a completely unique AI.)
Ellie catches a glimpse of a message entering her vision field, her time with Neuro has officially come to an end.
For the first time Ellie felt... Relief, at the idea of not getting to see Neuro for a while, instead of the deep-rooted sadness that usually comes with not getting to see a good, long-distance -friend- for a while.
She nods, so the people outside know she has read the message.
Ellie directs her light and courteous voice for the final time towards Neuro.
ELLIE (cont'd)
This has been really enlightening, thank you, Neuro.
Neuro smiles, with both her arms up to her chest, her curled up hands framing her face,and in one swift movement of her hands, Ellie cuts the camera transmission.
FADE OUT: