I, Clarissa - Stories from Valentine Z [PRIVATE]

[Valentine Z]

The Stories Heard Around De Geweldige Sierlijke Katachtige Utopia en Zijne Autonome Machten ov Valentine Z

A Collection of Shorts

A sister project of The Adventures of Gwen “Tracer” Allison, rather than focusing on one single character’s adventures through multiple dimensions, this project and short story collection will focus on the other characters of Valentine Z, detailing their stories before, during, or perhaps even after Valentine Z. Unless said otherwise, all of these stories will be considered canon.

It will be updated periodically as I go along, with my University life, updates may be sparse at times. For the sake of reading and making it a “storybook”, only I will have the power as the OP to post here. Feel free to read along, and I hope that you guys enjoy reading! Don’t worry, it will be kept PG-13 (or even lower) as per the rules.
Occasional bad language, violence, a little bit of gore. Sexual themes will only go as far as kisses, nothing more.

The years will be in convention of actual Earth’s years, not Decimal Years that Valentine Z uses. This is to eliminate the confusion.

If you want to know more or ask about this project, you can send me a Telegram. I’m open to it!

NOTICE
It’s all for free, but just thought I will put it here – some of the pictures are taken by myself, while others are taken from the internet. The links can be found in the raw BBCode of my posts, accessible through “Quoting”.

Some real life events are inside but for the most parts, it's fictional and will deviate away. However, in the event that storylines line-up with actual real-life events, it is simply a matter of coincidence.

RL Earth is defined as Real-Life Earth, that is, simply based on the OOC Earth, but not exactly the OOC Earth itself. Any and all inaccuracies or deviations that might be considered... deviant, is also purely unintentional, and utmost care will be given to touch and handle sensitive subjects, or best, not mentioned at all.

[Valentine Z]

1st Work: “I, Clarissa”
Characters Involved: Clarissa Alanis Star.
Part 1: viewtopic.php?p=36256751#p36256751
Part 2: viewtopic.php?p=36264481#p36264481
Part 3: viewtopic.php?p=36647697#p36647697
Part 4: viewtopic.php?p=37034291#p37034291
Part 5: viewtopic.php?p=37556883#p37556883

[Valentine Z]

...

[Valentine Z]

I, CLARISSA

PART I

“It’s complete, Sir. She’s ready for your evaluation,” the voice from the communications system hailed into the office of one particular computer scientist. The many years and months of work was finally complete, and he was able to sigh a relief after so long.

“Excellent,” the scientist responded back, “I will be here shortly.”

“Thank you, Dr. Tristian.”

Hibernating his own work computer into a standby mode and making sure that it’s locked, he grabbed his coat promptly and lightly stormed out of the door – the kind that one sees when a person is not angry, but simply in a hurry. He snaked around the corridors, giving a meaningful look to all of the passing scientists and security guards alike. It would be the very first time they finally saw him smiling around and generally in a chipper mood for the first time since perhaps weeks, or even months. Tristian was extremely eager and anxious for this project to work and maybe this time, Isalov Industries would get a breakthrough that would not shut them down from excessive fund usage.

After a minute of walk that seemed like eternity, Tristian arrived at the laboratory, with several other scientists waiting eagerly for him to arrive. “There you are, Tristian. We have finally done it!” one of them exclaimed, trying his best to button his excitement. The lab itself was bundled and covered with wires from walls to ceilings, with a considerably large number of laptops, computers, and servers all whirring loudly. The place was kept at 14° C in order to cool the devices, with all the scientists and lab technicians all in their thick clothing. Due to the lack of hazardous materials involved in the computer lab, none of them were compelled to wear safety goggles, gloves, and the like.

“Thank you, friend,” Tristian replied back, moving back to his informal but polite tone, “So… the Administrator. Is he here?”

“Can’t find him yet. He said that he would come, but… circumstances. Told us to do this without us, and provide raw footage to him,” he then eyed at the nearby camera that was pointed at a sealed capsule. That would where the soon-to-be crown jewel of Isalov Industries was in.

“Well, let’s get the cameras rolling, and let’s begin,” Tristian motioned the other scientists, whilst reciting his own lines over and over. This cannot fail this time, he thought to himself. This fusion has to work after so many failures.

“This has to work, right?” Tristian asked at another one of his colleagues, “Dr. Mitchell, we have been trying this for so long, we cannot fail this, right?”

“No, friend,” Mitchell replied back, trailing off and tugging his collar a little, “At least, I hope not. Don’t worry, the security team is here for… security. In case, you know?”

“I know what you mean… let’s get going, then… I don’t think we should delay anymore, eh? Camera! Roll, please!”

The technician then started recording, a recording light on the video camera being activated.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, and the Administrator…” Tristian began speaking to the camera, aloof though a tad excited, “I am proud to present the work that we have accomplished after so many months and years. Many sleepless days and nights, to perfect something as remote as merging the human mind with a computational one. The calculations, the codes, and the synthetic neurons, they have all been proven to work at their utmost efficiency thanks to the hard work of all my colleagues. I could not have done this without them. Without further ado, my fellow friends and families… allow me to introduce our latest creation!”

On cue, the capsule opens with the accompanying fog and some smoke. After they diffused away to the surroundings, they were greeted by the sight of a synthetic human – a robot in the form of a young adult girl. Blue-skinned, dark blue dress, and orange-coloured synthetic hair bundled up neatly in a ponytail. The round face, made out of an extremely high-quality electronic paper screen, fluidly comes to life, revealing a cartoonish face that shows a little smile, along with its eyes looking around wildly at the lab around itself.

“Ladies and Gentlemen… meet Clarissa Alanis Star!” Tristian announced proudly. At that moment, the camera zoomed out to the capsule and Tristian, as well as with many other scientists and technicians clapping and cheering elatedly. The cheering and clapping died down naturally after 6 seconds, with Tristian and the team bowing down and the former continuing his speech.

“Now then… here is our first few steps with Clarissa. She has no knowledge of anything at the moment, a blank slate. She has the basic human emotions encoded into her, and what we feel would be in the mind of an infant when they are born. She will be the very first truly Smart Artificial Intelligence, that will learn our every motion, every move, and her CPU mind will accelerate this, helping her and giving her the edge that no one else will have!”

Clarissa finished looking around, and the platform below her moved and would wheel her a meter or two in front and towards Tristian, with the harnesses and cables being removed by the other technicians, then running on her batteries. She looked around yet again, whilst fidgeting a little and trying to balance her 7-feet tall frame along the way.

“A little difficulty with standing up, Clarissa?” Tristian asked, to which Clarissa says nothing, and does not react. She has no idea what he was saying.

“It’s okay, girl. You will learn. Now come, put up your hands,” Tristian said, as he put out both his hands in front of him and towards Clarissa. The latter also does the same.

“Good, good… now that wasn’t so bad, was it? Now, follow me,” Tristian said again calmly, holding both of Clarissa’s hands and Tristian himself shuffling backwards slowly. Clarissa did the shuffling, but backwards, resulting in her moving away from Tristian instead of following her. A few chuckles and laughs were heard, along with Tristian’s.

“Haha, ahh no girl, to me… To me!” he said with a smile, babying his very first successful creation. He turned around and walked along, trying to show Clarissa how to walk, “Follow me, girl!”

Clarissa scanned Tristian’s walk and motion in a couple of seconds, processing it. After a while, she lifted one foot off and placed it in front of the other, alternating for the next step. And after just 4 seconds, she was walking slowly towards Tristian, putting back her arms slowly.

“Good girl! Baby’s first steps! Easy, right?” Tristian said to her and the rest of the team. The team responded, but Clarissa did not. She tried to imitate a few sounds, but it all went “Ooooh!” or “Aaaah!”

“Tsk, no worries on your lack of words. We came prepared!” Tristian motioned Mitchell to take a tablet, along with a pair of earphones. He then turned on a series of videos that are meant for human infants to learn.

“So, folks… I know what you are thinking; why don’t you just feed her the information directly? Like, maybe just put in directly in her data input slot? Ahh, we certainly could, but we want her to learn the human way! A proof, that she is functional like a human, but faster. Here, girl!”

They helped Clarissa up by plugging in the earphones onto her ears, and giving the tablet. She held it haphazardly, but eventually learned to use her opposable thumbs to grip them. The videos were a series of kids’ videos as aforementioned, covering the basics of alphabets, numbers, pronunciations, simple phrases, and many more. The videos also feature children doing basic movements, such as running, jumping, clapping, and many more that kids do. As the videos were being played, Clarissa would scan the screen, along with hearing out whatever was being played. She would then found herself mimicking these voices and noises along the way to her very best. “Aaaa?” “A!” “App-pell!” / “B? Bbbb. Ballwe!” This went on for several more minutes, and after the videos are over, Clarissa was ready.

“Hello!” she smiled, “I… Clarissa! I am Clarissa. I am happy to be here!”

Another thunderous roars and applause echoed through the lab once again. Tristian, Mitchell, and basically every single personnel were simply happy with her progress.

“The span of progress is amazing!” Tristian exclaimed to his other colleagues, “She… she went from simple tonal voices, to small sentences in a matter of minutes! The videos lasted around 15 minutes in total, covering the basics of English and the numbers. And she did it and even more.”

Another scientist then plugged in Clarissa to the nearby computer, which the latter did not mind and was curious. The computer accessed Clarissa’s files, and it was then confirmed that there were indeed many new files being inside her, and written by her.”

“Incredible! She coded and made new rules for herself! All in machine language, though it would seem like… a human wrote it. Brillant, Clarissa!”

“Brill-lee-yant?” Clarissa asked.

“You are good, Clarissa!”

“Ohhh. Thank you very much!” she smiled sheepishly, making a ^_^ face.

[Valentine Z]

I, CLARISSA

PART II

The video camera stopped recording, and the science team once again applauded wildly and patted each other’s back, amongst handshakes, hugs, and many, many more. Tristian had an incredible sigh of relief and he too was congratulated as the project lead. Clarissa, not knowing anything at the moment, clapped softly and smiling at herself. The other scientists took notice of it, and they found that to be rather adorable.

“Come, Clarissa!” Tristian called her out from a short distance, “We have to take you to the Administrator! He is going to be very happy to see you!”

“Yay, I cannot wait!” Clarissa exclaimed back.

“Can you walk here?” Tristian asked.

“Yes, I can. I am coming to you,” Clarissa replied back, walking slowly and surely, gaining momentum along the way. It took her perhaps around 50 seconds to cover that 18 meters distance towards Tristian. She have mastered the art of walking, for now, at least.

“Good girl! Let’s go, Clarissa.”

As they walked slowly to the Administrator’s office, Tristian and Clarissa had a short conversation with each other. The other scientists and technicians, as well as security officers and other visitors and guests, were looking at the blue robot in a dress with a cyan heart on it. They all waved at her, said hello to her, amongst many others. However, they were specifically told not to take flash photography of her. After all, she has not experienced that yet, and they were afraid that it might trigger her in some unexpected manners or ways that were not predicted. If the human mind can be unpredictable, so will a replica of a human mind combined with a computer.

“So, Clarissa… how do you feel so far?”

“Feel? I am happy! Hm hm!”

“That is good to hear. Is there a thing that you would like to know?”

“I… I do not want to know anything. Well, not yet.”

“What is on your mind now, then?”

“Ohh, yes! Why is it so cold in here?”

“Ahh, well… we like the cold! The computers also like it too!”

“Hm hm, I see!” Clarissa turned her head and gave a little smile at Tristian, perhaps indicative of her trusting him. She might be wall taller than everyone around her, but she certainly is as helpless as a newborn infant, or at most perhaps the intellect of an average 4-year-old. Clarissa was then told to keep quiet for most duration of the meeting with the Administrative in order to avoid any mishaps, to which she complied.

As the conversation went on casually and Clarissa learned some new words, they arrived at the Administrator’s office. Tristian knocked on the door, tugging his collar for a short while and looking at Clarissa standing right beside him. She was as calm as water in a pool, and her eyes were looking around with much curiosity. A few seconds later, the door creaked open and both of them were greeted by the sight of a man in his 40s in in his cobalt-coloured suit. A few other men of nearly the same age were seen inside, though they were wearing grey-coloured suits. Tristian was becoming increasingly anxious, but they finally broke the ice a little soon after.

“Hello there, Mr. Kelly,” Tristian addressed towards the man in the blue suit, exchanging handshakes with him and the others, “And the others as well. I am glad to have you all here.”

“We are as well,” Kelly started off after clearing his throat a little, followed by giving a neutral but well-meaning look to Clarissa, “We are glad to see you, Clarissa. Sorry I could not be there; I was filing some paperwork with these gentlemen over here.”

“Ohh err, it’s fine, no issue with that,” Tristian replied back, trying his best to be as formal as possible, “So… I got the video right here from the camera. I am very sure that Clarissa will turn many heads in a good way, and soon we could be looking at a new leap in the fields of Artificial Intelligence.”

“That’s good to hear. Thank you, Tristian, we will take a look at it right now.” Kelly then turned on the Television right beside, which was connected to his work computer. He stuck the flash drive onto the computer, played the video file, and all of them watched the footage. There were some talks among themselves from Kelly and the grey suits, but for the most parts, they were watching intensely.

“Oooh, look! That is me on the… screen!” Clarissa exclaimed but softly.

“Yes, that is you, Clarissa. You did great there,” Tristian replied.

“Agree. I can see the potential in it,” one of the men in the grey suits confirmed.

It went on for the entirety of the duration of the video, and after it ended, Kelly cleared his throat yet again, whilst slowly fidgeting with a pen in his hand. He and the grey suits were as calm as Clarissa in the room, and at that moment, Tristian felt a little lost. None of them were showing any visible emotions, and it was getting increasingly impossible to think about how they feel.

“So… my Sirs,” Tristian broke the silence, “What do you all think?”

“Oh, well, the technology has a lot of potential, and once again, congratulations to your team!” one of the grey suits replied back, “But err… I am afraid that Mr. Kelly might have some… concerns, is it?”

“Hmm, ahh, yes, “ Kelly began yet again, “So, the girl right here shows a lot of prowess in her learning skills, and she is like a human child. Very natural thing to do. But see… the problem is… we are all working and making this secretly, and no one outside of our world has seen anything this advanced yet. How would their reaction be like?”

“Ahh, that… I gave that some thought, Mr. Kelly, but… you are right in that-“ Tristian said, with increasing anxiety.

“Ohh Tristian, don’t be too overworked,” Kelly changed his tone, smiling a little more frequently now and then, “The cliché of emotionless and faceless administrators doesn’t apply to us. We applaud your work and we are certainly very happy, but… of course, the question is on whether or not the world will react positively to her? Her design is already a step-up – a cute and friendly face for everyone, but the surveys show that, well, not a lot of people are warming up to the idea of fully sentient robots, you see?”

“I understand what you mean, Mr. Kelly.”

“I am looking forward to Clarissa learning as much as she can, but for the time being, I’m afraid that she needs to be let out slowly. Start with a few pictures first, and perhaps an article, and then spread it all over the internet. It will take some time for people to be friendly to her, and for her to be… much more human.”

“I understand… so what do you suppose that we do for her?”

“Nothing much for the time being. Just, teach her stuff, do basic things with her… basically raise her up like how you would raise a child. She’s more or less a blank slate like a child,” Kelly then leans in to whisper into Tristian’s ears, “And you can always wipe her memory if you mess up.”

Tristian agreed and chuckled anxiously. He was hoping that he will not need to do that, though the idea itself being suggested is not uncommon.

[Valentine Z]

I, CLARISSA

PART III

As the two of them exited Kelly’s office, Tristian found himself being extremely relieved that the administrators wanted nothing too much from Clarissa, perhaps in a good way. With the potential of a robot having efficiency that surpasses the humans and other organic creatures by a large margin, as well as Clarissa being a true Artificial Intelligence, would mean that the administrators, as well as the governments, and the entire world as a whole, going after her. Tristian was unsure about the latter two, but he knew that he could trust Kelly. After all, the man let them do whatever they want with the grant money that the science team has obtained, with a minimal number of questions asked along the way.

Tristian would give Clarissa a meaningful look, holding her arms while the latter would simply look around the room and be fascinated by the things around her. Something that caught her eye was none other than her own clothes. She began looking down on her own body, taking a good look at the blouse she was wearing.

“I have a little blue heart on my blouse!” Clarissa cheered excitedly, “Hmm.. heart! I know a little bit about it, but… what does it mean?”

“Ohh, that! That means that you are someone with a lot of love for people around, Clarissa! You are meant to love, and to be a caring person all-around.”

“Ooooh, interesting! Hm hm, where are we going now, Mr. Tristian?”

“Well, we will be showing you to the room that you will be living in, of course. Trust me, it is going to be amazing. We took quite some time furnishing it!”

Clarissa got her own room in the laboratories, furnished exactly so that she would be a wonderful piece of technology for the scientists and her creators to research on her behaviour, as well as letting her emulated consciousness live the mind of a human. After all, there is no point in AI research and perceiving them as humans if they do not let the robot live like a human would. The bedroom-living room combination was a little deeper inside the labs – a little turn here, a turn there, some sharp turns along the corridors, and there would be it! Clarissa’s room, marked in a rather unimpressive color, along with dull door to go with it. On it, the name plate simply says “2904”.

“Oooh, is this my room, Mr. Tristian?”

“Yes, it is!” exclaimed Tristian, excited as just as the other researchers around in order to give her a surprise. Maybe she did not mind the door, and seems that she is a little unimpressed with it herself. It’s an ordinary door, so there is something bound to be normal and nothing out of ordinary.

Clarissa was up for a surprise that particular day.

There were a lot of ideas and discussions pitched around on making Clarissa’s place a lovely place for herself. A theme of some sort, and perhaps something that she would love. Her mind is of indeterminate mental age, a result of a computational mind merged with a human mind working together in a conglomerate of speed. At the same time, whilst she does have the body of a 20-25 year old, she is still young at heart. Very, very young. As for her creators, they finally came up with an idea that day.

---

“I’m not sure if she will like it, actually,” comments one of the researchers.

“Trust me guys, it will be well worth it!” said Tristian, reassuring the team, “Sure… we might need some time to deal with her height and all, but a room built out of scratch and love for her? I think it will be well worth the surprise she gets.”

---

The video camera had perfectly captured Clarissa’s face. The face that with the smile and brightness of a million suns. Her little paradise, is indeed in front of her.

“Welcome Home, Clarissa!” Tristian shouted, along with the rest of the researchers that followed.

Her face changed from pure elation to curiousity, but one can still see a smile on her cartoony and robotic face. She would possibly be the first robot to emulate such an emotion that would not be uncanny for the people around her. Not a creepy, smiling robot that everyone feared that she might turn out to be.

She stepped into the room, walking slowly and surely towards the things right in front of her. A pastel and neutrally painted room, along with her own kid-like bed, a closet, a mirror, and an assortment of toys from the chest of toys. The toys ranged from simple and adorable plush toys, to woodcraft puzzles and counting toys, to a tad more complex electronic toys with noise and visit feedback. There's also a bookshelf with a surprising diversity of books - from "My first ABCs", to "Quantum Mechanics and Theory of Everything"; some kid-friendly books, some horror themed books, some action-oriented spy novels, she simply was going to have it all.

The first thing Clarissa did would be to look out the window. It was a view of the garden outside... Though an indoor garden at that. She placed her right hand on the window hinge, looking at it for a few seconds before looking out again, curious at the artificial garden that was built for the mere sake of emulating the world outside and above ground.

"What a lovely view it is!" she whispered to herself happily, "I wonder if the world is like this!"

She finished looking outside and then proceeded to walk and look deeper into the toy chest. Inside it were the aforementioned plush toys, and Clarissa picked up one that is an orange-and-white kitten. Battery operated, with a little bit of squeeze, it makes a little meow. She gave a little bit of squeeze just like that, and the little kitten toy meowed.

"Mewww!"

"Awww, you are so... Adorable!" Clarissa said back to it, petting its little head. "My little kitty!"

Tristan would have a bit of a time explaining her the concept of pets and toys, or at least the ones that resemble actual animals. Baby steps, he thought. They could overload her with too much information, and they would take care of it slowly. They will have to think of the next best thing if they want to give her a pet, though they were confident that she would make a good pet owner given her gentle nature, and as so long as she has not discovered her defence mechanics... Among other things.

"Baby steps, I suppose," Tristan muttered to himself and to the others around, "I suppose... We can give her a bit of space, and just be around her to answer her questions."

The others would be giving her and Tristian some company, watching her from a distance with the security cameras installed on the outside of the room – One right outside the door, and another outside the window. Clarissa would continue looking and playing with the toys that she got, all the while putting the little kitten toy on her shoulder.

“Ohh, Mr. Tabby! How I wish you are real!” she exclaimed excitingly, “Mr. Tristian, are these little things cute if they’re real, as well?”

That triggered a question and an assumption in Tristian. Did she know and was aware of the nature of the kitten toy? “How I wish you are real”… she seems aware of the differences between a live animal, and a toy. She is still gentle as ever, so maybe one day she will have her own little kitten.

“Err, yeah, of course! Kittens and cats are the most adorable thing ever! There are dogs too, of course, like that one in your toy chest. But you seem to be a bit more content with having a little kitten, so… yes, they are cute! Maybe one day we can get you one!”

“Hm hm, yayy!” Clarissa cheered and gave Tristian a smile. She then bent over her 7-feet frame and gave Tristian a hug, along with a whisper, “Thank you very much, my lovely creator friend!”

“Anything for you, Clarissa. You are our best thing to ever happen.”

She would then walk towards the bookshelf, this time taking a book from the shelf.

“Ahh, “A Cat in the Hat”! That’s a pretty nice one. Would you like me to read it for you?“

“It’s all right!” Clarissa said with a small bit of pride in her happy tones, “I think I want to read this myself! Thank you, though!”

She proceeded to lie down on the bed specially made for her – a 9-feet long Queen-size bed to accommodate for her height. The nightstand has a multi-colour night lamp that she can change colour to her desire. With her engrossed in the book and voicing out some vowels herself, Tristian excused himself and left her room, promising her that he and the others will be around still.

“This is going to be just all right,” Tristian thought to himself, “No Skynet bullcrap this time.”

[Valentine Z]

I, CLARISSA

PART IV

Clarissa would be found having a time of her life playing with the assortment of toys that she got, as well as reading book after book from her shelf. The rate that Clarissa read was observed to be rather remarkable, with Tristian seeing her reading a new book every 30 minutes he would come into her room to check on her. It all seemed to be going well with her learning and sating her curiosity, and perhaps even trying out a few different outfits that they have gotten for her.

“She’s like a big girl,” Tristian remarked to the rest of the researchers once again, “She has the appearance of a 25-30 years old, but the fact of the matter is that she is still a young and timid child at heart learning about the things around her. And that is exactly the reason why this project will be a success. We want to make sure that she was able to process all this knowledge to evolve and grow on her own, instead of us downloading files into her. I thought this might take some time, but it seems that she is picking up the pace rather fast.”

It would be an outsider’s guess on why Tristian would be repeating the very thing that he and his researchers already know about. After all, they were all together with him, so the objectives and the goals were rather clear. Perhaps this would be seen as Tristian trying to convince the rest of his researchers that she would not be dangerous, or something about her being aware of her nature. It would be a matter of time before Clarissa becomes fully aware of herself and starts asking more and more about herself. Eventually, that big day will have to come, and she would need to recognise herself.

In one particular day, after consulting with the higher-ups and making sure that she will not go ballistic, Tristian and the research team would bring in a body mirror for Clarissa, though they covered it first so as to set up the necessary counter-measures and kill-switches.

“Hmm, hello!” Clarissa raised her right hand and waved at the researchers, getting up from her bed and slowly walking towards them, “Oooh, what is that?”

“Is it all set?” “Yeah, it’s good to go,” were the background conversation between the other researchers. Tristian walked up towards Clarissa and started giving her a set of instructions and a quick brief.

“Hello there, Clarissa! Ahh, this one? This is what you call a mirror. So… basically, we would like you to look at it and study the mirror, all right?”

“Ooooh! What else would you like me to do with it?”

“Well, just look at it, really. Look at what you see, how do you feel, and so on. Just remove the cover once we have left the room, and you will be free to your own thoughts. Have fun!”

“Hm hm, okay!” and with that, the researches would leave the room, Clarissa along in her room, with the mirror.

“Initialise active thought record again.”

---

Another day in my little room! So I was tasked with finding out what this “mirror” is, which from what I have read in the books on the shelf, is this particular piece of furniture that lets you dress up in front of it, and look at the world opposite. At least, that was my very first thought for the time being.

After looking at the mirror for a good few seconds, I decided to see what the deal was about, and unveiled the sheet that was below it. The first thing I saw was indeed another version of me, but the direction seems to be swapped. I raised my right hand, and she raised her left hand. She was copying my every move! I wonder what the research team, my family and creators, was trying to ask me to do, but this is such a… weird experience, I will have to say. There is another world behind this mirror, where everything was the same and they copied my move, but they are inverted. It was so strange! I slowly walked towards it, and so did the other me – they walked towards me. They never did anything except copying my movement. I didn’t want to be rude, so I greeted. “Hello!” I said.

That was when I slowly realised and became aware of the mirror… that was not an opposite world. It was I in the reflection. A girl in a blue dress, light blue skin tone, cartoonish eyes, orange hair with a purple bow-tie. That is I! I am indeed aware of my appearance, but never would I thought that I would look at myself like this, from… not from my perspective, but from this very mirror that would emulate everything accurately, except it is swapped. It is such an unusual sensation if I am to be honest with myself, and to whoever that reads this.

Anyway, now that I realise the purpose of this mirror, I started to wonder something along the way. I am not very sure if my family will think anything of this, but... I am a robot? An autonous- autonous- autonomous machine that is made to... Be a human? I have read a few books on my shelf regarding this, but they do not seem to be as smart as me, for the lack of better word. It is so surreal. Is this... Is this an experiment of some sorts? Would that explain why I am in this room, and I was unable to remember my childhood? My life seemed to start just after 2 weeks.

A bit dizzy and my memory clotted from all of these thoughts, I decided to sit down on my bed and stare at the mirror. The girl in the mirror, i.e. me, is still staring at me, just like how I am staring at her.

"Who am I?" I thought to myself. All those that I have said, that is me. But... Who am I based on? Do I have a reference? Am I... Am I someone's long lost child? Or a memory of some loved one? For what reason they brought me into this world? Not to suffer, but for curiosity sake, that is definite; I was treated with the utmost respect and I am very happy for that. Still, it's weird that all this time... I am not a person, per se. I am a robot.

I am Clarissa the Robot. N-2904, Mk. 7. A harmonious nature between a machine and an emulated human mind.

That was my designation, hm hm! Hmm... I think I will enjoy this living and "life" but I think I want to ask my family on why I was created and on if there are others like me.

More importantly... What am I supposed to do, other than living here and running my life as a young girl?

[Valentine Z]

I, CLARISSA

PART V

“Okay, Tristian, we can begin the test now,” the PA system blared out across the facility, with Tristian and Clarissa in a decently large and pristine weapons testing arena of 10 meters by 10 meters. It was compact, and yet big enough for any situation. Clarissa was following Tristian, occasionally holding his hand because of her uncertain nature, and mostly because of her still getting used to walking. The others around her were certain of what she needed to do. Clarissa, on the other hand, has no such idea on what she was supposed to do.

“Oooh, what are we doing, Mr. Tristian?” she asked curiously, looking at the pristine walls of the testing area, “This place is very, very huge!”

“Ahh, weapons test. Weapons, do you know what they are?”

“A device or an equipment with the sole intent of hurting people?”

“Yes, indeed. You will be using a few of them! We want to see if you can defend yourself.”

“Wait, will I be hurting people?! I don’t want to hurt someone!”

“I know, I know, we understand,” Tristian explained, a nervous bead of sweat running down his neck, “We are not exactly training you to be a killer robot that you might have read about. Well, I mean, you still need to know how to defend yourself, after all, right? You are a big girl, but sometimes, there are people who wants to hurt you.”

“Ohh, that would be terrible.”

“Yes, and sometimes, those people hurt others as well. You have read those books that we have provided you, right? There are always villains in them.”

“Hmm, yes, the bad guys.”

“So, the world is unfortunately not black and white, err, not literally. There are good things who have bad traits, and bad things who have good traits. Something is not always good or bad. We wanted to test that of you, and see how well you can defend yourself. Now, are you up for it?”

Clarissa nodded with confidence, her neatly tied orange hair waving along with the nod, “I will- I will try!”

“Okay, Tristian, please clear the testing area,” the PA system blared out, “The chamber is now ready for testing!”

“Good luck, girl!”

---

So this was the very first test that I am going through, and I must say, it is a very, very large and clean room! Everything is so white and so clear, I feel like I can spend a lot of time in here! I wonder if this place is used for anything else other than for purely testing purposes. Oh yes, the test: When it started, the room changed a little bit in terms of the obstacles and pathblockers. The first few were fine, just having me navigate around the new paths from the start to finish. I suppose they wanted to test me on whether or not I could navigate when the path has no straight line. I eavesdropped a little and learned that this was one of the more basic tests for robots like me! Then came the second phase of the test: With enemies / foes that I have to attack. I was told from the speakers that they were just holograms – illusions of actual things and they cannot hurt me, at least not here. The four enemies came to me with various sharp objects, threatening to hurt me. Even for a simulation, can’t say that I was not intimidated; I was a little terrified, but then I activated my defensive mechanisms, setting it to the lowest level possible. The four holographic people were much shorter than me when they approached me, so I simply lifted them up and slammed them against one another, whilst pushing and shoving the other two and gave them a knock-out. I was not aware I was capable of such a thing. What if my defensive mechanisms were activated to their very limits? What if I could not control myself? I am worried about myself, on what I can do to people around me.

---

The test did not last that long. After perhaps 14 minutes of testing (including the obstacle courses), it was concluded when Clarissa was simply standing in the middle of the testing area.

“What is she doing? Mitchell, what is happening with Clarissa?”

“Is she stuck on some feedback loop? Hmm, thought we tested that bit.”

“That does not seem to be it. She’s still responsive and she has not crashed. She’s just… taking what the simulated enemies are doing.”

“Being stabbed repeatedly by the holograms while standing there. Well, that is rather new, I will have to say. We will have to stop the test.”

Tristian reached out to the control panel and stopped the holograms, as well as reverting the testing room back to its normal state.

“The test is over, Clarissa. Thank you for your participation!” Mitchell blared out onto the PA system, a degree of uncertainty in his voice, “Now, Tristian will be coming over, so don’t you worry about a thing!”

As Tristian stepped into the room, Clarissa suddenly turned herself around and ran towards her friend. There was a degree of fear and uncertainty in her face as she approaches.

"Clarissa, girl what happened-" Tristian asked before being hugged and embraced a little too tightly by his android creation.

"Oh my goodness, I am so sorry, Tristian!" Clarissa exclaimed, still hugging, forming a small tear on her screen face, "It was so very weird, and so very... conflicting! I don't know what to do!" This was then followed by a small little sob.

In the meantime, Mitchell and the rest of the group were perplexed by the emotional response from their creation. "Is... Is she crying?" they thought to themselves, furiously writing down whatever they can in order to take note for future reference. They already know that she can at least feel happiness and neutrality, but a crying response over having to hurt someone? A new discovery, they thought.

"Oh no, girl, it's okay... It's okay, don't- don't cry," Tristian reassured Clarissa, with the latter slowly bending down due to her massive 7 feet height, "It's okay, girl, no one is going to hurt you."

"It's not that, Tristian..." her voice trail off, analogous to a lost child who had their first fight, "It's just, I don't know what to do. I don't want to hurt them. I was... I was very, very violent! I know they are not real, but what if- what if this happened to me in real life?"

"That is why you will have to respond accordingly, Clarissa," Tristian said, slowly letting himself go from her embrace and touching her screen-face, "It will come with time, don't worry. You're still learning! Besides, you did well over there! You used the minimal amount of force, maybeeee except from smacking the two guys together."

"Yeah, I know," Clarissa followed up with a sad face, "Do I have to... fight, like all the time?"

"No, unless you absolutely need to. Be as peaceful as possible until it can't be resolved without violence. You will learn, don't worry. First times always have a hiccup."

"Hmm... What is a hiccup?"

"Ohh err, right. It's what happens when humans, and well, animals, let's just say that sometimes our throats get a little tickled. Okay, what I mean is, first times always have a problem. That is what learning is, like your very first words."

"Hmm, that is true! Do you think I could try that again later? I want to give it a try again!"

"Of course! We are going to make a few adjustments to you, if you don't mind."

"Hm hm, sure! Thank you, Tristian," Clarissa proceeded to embrace Tristian a little bit more again before letting go and walking off together with him.

---

That was terrible! I know this was out of necessity, but I could not bring myself to do it again! >.< What kind of a being would I be if I am programmed and forced to fight almost all the time? I know these are defensive measures, but I wonder if I could run the test again without hurting them too much. I can only hope! For the time being, I am being led to one of the calibration chambers, they call it. That is where they do adjustments on me, to improve myself. So first, they put me on this testing bed that is actually very comfortable – my pressure sensors on my body were registering good readings. Anyway, they tested my legs first, then my arms. They pulled one of my arms and started probing my palm, which makes me rather ticklish, hehe! ^^ After the calibration was done, I feel like my hands and legs are lighter, but in a good way. I feel more… agile! I am not very sure what they did to me, but this is so nice, and I like it! I was confident and told them that I would like to go for another run at the same tests that I did, maybe minus the obstacle courses. I already did enough of that!

---

The second test went underway with Clarissa sporting a much more confident smile on her face this time. Tristian, Mitchell, and the rest of the scientists went into the observation room and began taking notes once again. The four holographic enemies appear once again, sporting knives and other various objects with the sole intent of hurting her. Still, even the holograms and the whole system would have to respond to whatever Clarissa is doing. After all, she was the subject of this test. With the holograms approaching her, Clarissa navigated around as much as she can to avoid the simulated damage from the virtual knives. In a rather swift act, Clarissa managed to register a hit and a slap on 3 of the assailants, dropping their weapons and being unable to pick them up. She tried to talk them out of it, as it would seem for the observers, but when that didn’t work, she simply delivered a swift and clean blow to their faces to knock them unconscious. As for the remaining one out of the four, the researchers decided that they would simulate him to surrender and drop his weapon. With him dropping his weapon and begging for forgiveness and mercy, Clarissa also stood down, deactivating her defensive mechanisms. She took half a second to register that it was not a fluke and after that was done, proceeded to give the holographic man a hug.

---

I managed to knock out three of them into unconsciousness this time. It was not that better from the last one, but at the very least, I have the other one suddenly begging for mercy. Maybe he saw what I did to his other friends. I did what I could and consoled the man, though after doing a quick scan to make sure that he was not preparing to stab me all of a sudden. He was not getting ready for that. I then proceeded to give him a hug and tell him that everything is going to be all right. Even for a hologram, I feel awful that I would have to hurt someone who is clearly unwanting to fight.

After this was done, the test is finally over! Tristian and his friends came over to congratulate me and I gave each and every one of them a hug! I don’t think Mitchell was that fine with being hugged a lot, but I respect that. I think I gave too much hugs, oops! I am feeling rather good today as of now, hm hm! ^^ I finally know what is like to be tough and firm, and yet to be merciful and compassionate when someone has backed down. I am going to have a really good sleep cycle tonight!