| White Lies | |
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| Topic Started: Mar 23 2018, 05:01 AM (2 Views) | |
| basketkitty | Mar 23 2018, 05:01 AM Post #1 |
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The Japanese entertainment industry has taken a change in the past couple years. They've become more lenient with their talents, allowing them more room to show their humanity. No longer are talent agencies keeping their workers modeled after robots and porcelain dolls. Now, they have taken after the Westerners. Perfection isn't as beautiful anymore. Grit and reality is desired now. Humanity is in, robotics are out. Mainly because they now have actual robots to fill that role. Of course, there are some agencies who stick to the 'old' ways. Who don't care if their talents are indistinguishable from the actual androids taking the stages. Who still think perfection is beautiful, and anything less is shameful and should be punished severely. But the humanity in those places are lost. They thrive somehow, but no one knows why. Perhaps it's through the fans who like their robots to actually be able to breathe. But give them another few years, and that should be gone, too. I suppose it's a little scary, if you think about it too much. Us humans will be taken over by the robots someday. Right now they are our entertainment, a subdivision of our music industry. But someday they will take over and human musicians will no longer be needed. Then, from entertainment to education. From education to management. From management to government. But as long as the scientists don't reach too high, AM and Hal will never be realized. Such intelligence in something that can't live will never happen. At least...that's what we were told. Ever since I was fourteen, I was part of a four person band. Back then, we did have to be perfect. We had insane schedules, hundreds of shows, schoolwork, exams, lessons... It was hard, but it was the life we lived. So we got used to it. We were perfect children. I had to stifle my inner rebel, only allowed to show so much humanity amongst my thousands of other accomplishments. Perfectly bilingual, top score in every class, special treatment at one of the highest esteemed universities... Perfection was hard. But it was the life we lived. And then four years later, they introduced the first artificial singer. And then came what could either be considered the dark age, or the brightest time for the industry. I never really liked them much, those...androids. They never seemed right. Sure, they moved like humans and spoke like humans and looked like humans...but they didn't feel human. And I remember being perfect, as perfect as them...and I always fear that those creatures would take over my job and make me lose what I have. ...Everyone else thought so, too. People started getting scared. No one could tell who was human and who wasn't anymore. So the humans began to mark themselves. The androids were programmed to follow exact instruction, so they weren't allowed to get marked. They didn't think of it themselves, so they never did it. After a few months, the panic dwindled down. Human entertainers stopped fearing the loss of their jobs. Business boomed for us, even. No one liked the android subdivision, aside from a scant few. Everyone loved the humanity we expressed. They loved the mistakes we made, and the stupid things we did. To see us being human, it gave them comfort. It reminded them that we weren't going to be overthrown by perfection and science. That our natural lives would continue on. Then around my sixth year of being in my four-member band...they introduced us to a fifth person. He was young, maybe seventeen. Ridiculously handsome and charming. He had long lashes and thick hair and bold brows. A strong jaw, cracked lips, odd beauty marks... But something was off about him. We tried to not be stigmatizing and we shook hands with him. His grip was firm, and his smile was easy. Then I realized...I couldn't see any tattoos on him. But maybe they were just hidden. He was handsome, so he probably didn't want to mar his skin. Maybe if someone questioned him, he could pull up his sleeve and show a simple mark. But how could we ask? The androids were put into separate divisions than us. They wouldn't mix us up, right? ...Right? ...They did. They did mix us up. He wasn't human. He was too perfect. They had even tried to give him flaws to counteract his perfection, but it just made him even more perfect. He was exactly like a human. But he was just off enough. Just enough. It terrified me. ...But the others didn't seem to mind. They greeted him well, shook his hands, welcomed him in. They were intrigued, impressed, curious. Or maybe just oblivious. He introduced himself as Takuma. Takuma Hideaki. He said he was off traveling for a long time, studying performance in Europe. He said he didn't have any tattoos, because he didn't know that was the norm now. I could feel my chest tightening. What a lie. Such a lie. They didn't believe me, though. I told them repeatedly that I didn't think he was real. They sighed and told me I was just paranoid. They knew I hated the robots. The band was my life, and I was scared I would lose it to those machines. I told them they were just too gullible. Too easily fooled. They shook their heads and left to go spend time with their new friend. He spoke to me a few times. Tried to sit with me, tried to make smalltalk, tried to joke around... But his voice scared me, too. Why wasn't it perfect? Why did they have to give him such a humanistic voice? Why did they have to make him breathe like us? Why did they give him the ability to eat? To taste? To smell? Why did they have to make him so human? Why couldn't they just leave well enough alone? At the very least...I know he doesn't bleed red. Instead, he bleeds white. We found him, in an alley. I told him before to not go out unless he got marked. He refused, though. And he got someone spooked. We took him to Mamoru's house, which closer than anything else. I asked if he was broken, but he shook his head. Why did they make him feel pain? Why did they make him able to cry? We bandaged him up, and the others had me sit beside him while they went to get someone to look at him better. He spoke to me again, his synthesized voice seizing with tears. "Yuuki... Why did they...call me a robot?" I froze. Were they right? Was he real? He doesn't bleed blood, though. He bleeds what the other androids bleed: a fake blood, used to keep their gears greased forever. But the other androids knew what they were. ...Why didn't he? ...Why would they do this? "I...told you to get...a tattoo," I whispered. "It...marks us as humans..." "But...they told me not to get one. Does that mean...I'm not human?" He was crying now, full tears coursing down his white-stained cheeks. Why was I stuck doing this? I hated androids, they terrified me. ...But here one was, entirely convinced that he had been human, but now questioning if that still held up. I didn't know what to say. Why had they made him believe he was real, but then not let him get what marked him as real? Was this some sort of test? Did they want him to go insane? Were they stupid? I panicked. "No, that's not true. You are human," I said, leaning forward, taking his hand. "I don't know what they didn't tell you to get one... But that's stupid. Let's get one tomorrow, okay? Let's get something nice." I couldn't believe what I was doing. I didn't want him anymore. I wanted him gone. I wanted him thrown into a scrap heap. I wanted him burned, torn up, crushed, destroyed... At least...I had. Despite his white blood, and his perfection, there was humanity in there. Someday he would snap and learn the truth...but I can't let that happen. I had to keep him safe from the people who would tear him apart, who would make him insane. I had to protect him. I had to help him. It started out selfishly, I admit. I didn't want him to breakdown and hate every human. I didn't want him to be the one to destroy the world. I didn't want to be scared of him. And...somehow...I stopped. I stopped being scared of him. I stopped fearing him, and hating him. I guess it's a psychological thing, but when he got his tattoos, the fear left. We got a matching tattoo around our wrists, something simple to show it wasn't scary. He asked me about all my others, and I told him about them with excitement. I recounted when the ideas came to me, and how I got them done. He ended up getting a few more that same day, just enough to be seen clearly. Afterward, we walked together for a while, talking more. He had healed quickly due to his synthetic skin, and seemed a little worried about that. I ended up taking his hand. "Just because you have some similarities to them, doesn't mean you are one," I told him. He looked to me...and smiled. After that, we spent more time together. He was grateful to me for making him feel better, and graced me with gifts whenever he could. And I found myself returning the favour. The others noticed my change in attitude, but decided that it was just a stigma I had. Those without tattoos were freaks. Takuma now was marked, so now he wasn't a freak. Now he was like me. Now we could be friends. But despite the tattoos on him...it didn't all go away. Takuma tripped one day at his school, and skimmed his hand. The students around him saw the white blood, and whispers were lighting the entire building on fire. Robot. Android. Machine. Non-human. Sub-human. Garbage. Trash. Worthless. Scrap metal. Scum. He came to my house in tears. He told me what they said to him. He told me they had pushed him down the stairs and off the stage. They had thrown things at him, threw his books into the water where he couldn't get it. He said he told them that he was human, he just didn't bleed blood. They chased him with a needle of muscle relaxant. I held him closer. It wasn't illegal to kill an android. You could get fined for destroying something that cost so much to make, but you couldn't be jailed. You just paid off a debt. Killing an android was fairly easy, you just stick them with a muscle relaxant, then once their synthetic skin fell off from that, you poured water over them. Or, you could cut an android, then dowse them, allowing the water to seep through the cut and into their circuits. But the relaxant was easier to come by. Even a cheap, weak kind was enough to make their skin peel off, and it didn't even bother humans that much. But if you stuck a human with one, then you could get jailed over discrimination and false accusations. Androids weren't human. No one cared if you ruined them, aside from the loss of money. We laid back in my bed together, and his tears soaked into my shirt. His tears weren't water, though. They were a liquid that was safe to his circuits if they got into a cut. He was masterfully designed...but they were so stupid. Those engineers who created him were so stupid. I didn't understand it at all, and it made me sick to think about. Why did they have to make him so human? Why did they have to make him so less than perfect? Why did they have to make him not know what he was? Or who he was? I hated it. At some point he stopped crying, and I rolled him over, laying on top of him. I held his face and matched his gaze. ...Never before had I wanted someone to smile more than now. Never before had I wanted to keep someone safe more than now. I've always been protective of my friends, but...Takuma was different. My chest stung more than ever before when I thought of him no longer being here. My guts churned and twisted at the idea of him laying in a pool of water, short-circuiting to the cheers of others...then never moving. His lips were warm, different than I always pictured before. I always imagined it being like cold metal, but his...his were soft and warm. Maybe a little cracked from him always chewing them (another attempt at them trying to make him more human), but it wasn't bad. He didn't really know what to do, however, so the kiss was clunky and rough. But I didn't mind. I kissed him again, then moved to his jaw, to his neck. The motors inside him made him warm, and the white blood circulated the warmth to every part of him. "You're human, Takuma. You're human. Don't you ever think otherwise," I whispered, my hands running over his soft, smooth skin. Fake or not, I didn't care. If they made him capable of feeling pain, then he could feel pleasure as well, right? I just wanted him to smile. I just wanted him to be happy. I just wanted him to love me back. Sex was slow, with a lot of kisses, and gentle massages. To my delight, he was able to orgasm, but surprisingly, there wasn't a mess. Then again, they probably didn't want them to try and procreate, or get someone sick if there wasn't a condom. Outside of entertainment, many of the androids were prostitutes, after all. But as a result, when I finished, Takuma was quite taken aback. "Why is it...white?" he asked. I chuckled. "Just because I have some similarities to them, doesn't mean I am one," I replied, sliding up to him for another kiss. In the morning, I awoke to him laying against me. I could feel the soft clicks of his mechanical heart beating against my chest, and the gentle rise and fall of his synthetic lungs, pushing and pulling his white blood to help it flow through his body. I looked down, and kissed him. He woke up, having not really been sleeping (he doesn't need to, but he allows himself a cool-down period at night to copy a sleeping schedule), and smiled up at me. "Good mo--" "I love you." I stopped in the middle of my greeting, my own heart skipping a beat or two. Or a hundred. Slowly, I relax again. "Really?" "...Really," he nodded, taking my hands which were against his face. "...I've always loved you." I smile. "Then you've always been human. No doubt about it." |
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6:41 PM Jul 11