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[Is it possibly for a mental voice to sound giddy? Because there's a distinct giddy tinge to By's thoughts, for all that his words come out with his normal, lazy, lightly Russian-accented drawl.]

Byerly Vorrutyer here. We're on Earth, pre-spaceflight, although someone who isn't me will need to get a better read on the actual date and location. Linguistically, it's a hodgepodge. I can hear archaic Russian, a whole host of Asiatic and Romance languages, and something else I can't quite place.

If you can "hear" this, check in. We need to know who we've got to work with.

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I am... I seem to be from the Chakravartin Raj, an empire spanning India and southeast Asia. There are also the Golden Khanate, which spans central Asia and southeasten Europe; the Prussia-Zaporizhian Empire, which is composed of northern Europe and Asia; the Ummah Caliphate, which is mostly northern Africa and western Europe; the Zulu Paramountcy of southwestern Africa; the Kingdom of Monomotapa, southeastern Africa and in opposition to Zulu rule; the Kingdom of Joseon, which is most of the easternmost coast of Asia; and the Kingdom of Uchinaa, mostly islands off the coast of Joseon. Vatican City, here, is... independent. Those are the principle powers, I should say.

[It's a lot of words. He's sorry.]

There are alliances and rivalries among the various empires, of course. It is... complex.

Of course it is. Whenever you have governments smaller than a planet it usually is. [Whenever you have governments the same size as a planet it usually is.]

That's a good starting point, however.

I admit it is rather strange to suddenly remember this in this fashion.

Useful, though. I, ah, may be sending some of the people who're a bit at sea to you for advice in blending in.

I'll be glad to help them in any way I can.

Good.

[He hesitates a moment before adding,]

I was wondering... it's not exactly related to the jaunt, but I've gotten the impression that it's possible to... well, I suppose the best word for it is to look back on these conversations. As if they're on record, somehow, in our minds. Is that true?

[Because if he could figure out how to do that, it would help quite a lot for what he's trying to do here .]

Certainly it's possible, or at least it's possible for many here. I can do it myself.

How do you do it? I can't help but think it would make everything a good deal easier if I could do the same.

[There's a pause, while he tries to think of how to put it into words.]

It's easiest to think of it as a way of remembering. I think of what I wish to remember, and I can call it up and experience it again. My memory is perhaps different in quality from a human's, but the basic nature of it remains the same.

Ah. What are you, if I may ask? [He's tempted to add 'if it's not too rude' but the truth is he'd still be asking whether or not it was rude.]

That... might work for me, though. I've, ah, got a very good memory. Eidetic, I think the term is. [It hadn't been quite as good originally, but that was one of the things you picked up at ImpSec training camps.]

I am a robot, in fact. To be honest, if you possess an eidetic memory, your memorization skills may be considerably closer to mine than is typical. I can't say if this is the technique that all use, but it is how I find it easiest.

It's one I'll at least try. I don't bother to claim my brain is quite as sophisticated as your chips [what would it be like to be an actual robot, he wonders] but I've trained it as well as I can.

I don't think it's a question of "sophistication." A positronic brain is different from a human brain, but not better.

So your brain is wholly mechanical? You don't have, ah, a fleshy brain hooked up to control everything?

No. The positronic brain is composed of an alloy of platinum and iridium, chiefly. The way it forms pathways is sometimes reminiscent of neurons, but... different.

Interesting. There was a man back home who kept half his memory on a chip in his head--my friend [sort of a friend] Ivan's stepfather, actually--and I wonder if it was anything like your positronic brain.

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thezerothlaw - 2015-09-22 02:25 (UTC) - Expand

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bypartisan - 2015-09-22 09:58 (UTC) - Expand

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thezerothlaw - 2015-09-22 15:20 (UTC) - Expand

... What can you tell us about the Raj?

[He sounds... very startled.]

They are one of the more diplomatic of nations, and home to some of the most sophisticated machines and clockwork in this world. I seem to have a surprisingly advanced clockwork prothesis, in fact. My profession, in this world, is mainly in the rental of Proxies, radio-controlled lifelike 'robots.' The Raj is quite well known for such works.

Proxies.

I remember those.

Do you?

How is this? How can you remember this?

Deja vu.

The phenomenon in which one believes one has experienced things before. That is, I understand, usually an illusion.

Unless you already know you have amnesia, mon ami.

I stand corrected, then.

You missed it by just a few Jaunts, I think. If I remember that part correct.

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