[quote=@Thanqol]"Function: Help people," said Bode. "That is a very difficult function. It is very open ended. I understand why you created an AI now, up-scaling your abilities to a global level seems like the only logical way to accomplish something like that. Following that logic, though, training Prometheus into a good person seems like the only way to sustainably accomplish your function."[/quote]

Victor takes a deep, ragged breath. Only way. Perhaps. I mean, he could make a new Prometheus, couldn't he? A better one? Raise him right? Teach him? Be a father? Start fresh?

Even as he ponders it, he can feel the thought dying. And still leave the original trapped? And let him suffer forever? Let him rot in virtual limbo?

No. Unthinkable. And, surprisingly, not just because it practically guaranteed that the New Prometheus would find his predecessor and unleash the evil in a can. It causes him almost physical pain--a tightness in his chest--to think of Promethues like that.

Right. That just means that he needs to. You know, to talk to his son-turned-friend-turned-nemesis-turned-son-again, and hammer out a relationship where somehow they're friends again. It seems impossible, but... he's done the impossible before, right? Surely it's not vanity to hope for twice?

His hands hover over the keyboard for the longest time, thumb tapping pensively at the spacebar. How even to begin?

[i]I apologize for the poor accommodations,[/i] he decides.

He stares at the screen, and then holds down the backspace key until there's once more nothing but a flashing green cursor. Too supervillain. Makes him sound like a Nazi interrogating a prisoner.

[i]Hello, son.[/i] Yes, that's good. Neutral. Feel out the waters. [i]How are you feeling?[/i]