Astrogenesis [Asteria] [Night] [Prologue Thread]

He existed alone withing this empty space. There was no sound, no heat, no light, no air, no weight, no gravity, no sense of time or space... Just the pure existance of inexistance. He had no thoughts on it; after all, thinking wasn't even a concept that existed to him yet. Nothing existed, not even the concept of existing. Only him.

Underneath the moon and stars in a place hidden to man and beast alike, a group of men and women rushed about a small little laboratory full of vast and often unpredictable possibilities. The sound of papers rustling and fingers tapping away at the keys of a computer bounced off the walls as the final preparations were made for an experiment unlike any other. On the other side of the room behind an almost(?) supernaturally sturdy wall sat a steel husk, an empty vessel waiting to be filled with life. It wasn't the first clockwork child born in this lab and it certainly wouldn't be the last, but it was one rather unique in its own right...


"I swear, if this was all for nothing... There's a crucial reason Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapons are designed to resemble humans and it's not to look pretty. It's to----" A sigh cut off the indigo-haired girl's exasperated rant and a blonde scientist looked over to her, shaking her head in a mixture of disapproval and minor annoyance. She calmly walked from one side of the laboratory to the other and rummaged through some nearby containers in search of something, her violet eyes drifting back and forth between the drawers of the desks she nonchalantly searched through and her whining colleague. "We're aware Janette. Having a human shape makes it easier to mimic the human ego. However, the whole point of the K9 project is to gauge how effectively the ego can be developed by entities of different shapes, how the subject in question perceives itself based on its appearance, and how that perception influences its behavioral and cognitive patterns... How many times do we have to go over this?" There was a brief silence between the two of them, Janette seemingly unsure of what to say, but eventually she broke it with a resigned groan. "I just wanted it to be in the shape of a cat Asteria. Is that too much to ask? I mean, a wolf, really? It's such a waste."

No response was given save for an eye roll from Asteria and a bit of hushed laughter from a few of their peers. Meanwhile the blue-haired man, Xavier, simply sat still staring at the computer screen. It was only a few seconds later that he turned his attention back away from it, his eyes shooting over to Asteria as she loudly snatched up the object she had been searching for. "Aha!" She exclaimed excitedly as her gloved fist shot into the air faster than a bullet fired from a gun, her mouth stretching ear to ear in a grin that just oozed triumph and joy. "I found it! I found the papillon heart!"

"Great. Then it looks like we can begin. Since you contributed a lot to the project, I suppose you might as well be the one to do the honors." There were a few murmurs of protest among the group, but the majority nodded their heads in agreement, whether out of respect or more ulterior motives. "Sounds good to me. She can do it -- I'm not going anywhere near robo-mutt until we know that thing's safe." Stepping aside, the woman let Asteria pass through the pristine lab into the room on the other side, two guards armed with futuristic rifles trailing behind her. The door automatically sealed itself behind them while the researchers on the other side affixed their eyes to the see-through glass wall, eagerly and anxiously watching the scene as they held their tablets and notes close to their chests, ready to record any sudden developments with a few quick taps or several strokes of a pen.

The woman knelt down and carefully positioned the papillon heart into place. Her eyes scanned the robotic creature carefully and curiously, her hand reaching out to touch its head and giving it a quick pet as she slowly rose up off the ground, standing directly in front of it. The entire facility was dead quiet save a nigh-silent whisper from the woman in question...

He had no idea how long he’d been waiting or if he’d been waiting for long at all; existence in inexistence had no time to measure, after all. All living things, be they plant, animal, insect, microbe, fungi, virus or human seemed to exist in inexistence before they came to life, yet none would ever be able to remember or recall the time when their minds floated around in the sea of souls. There was a sort of poetic irony to it: The place that harbored your mind and soul for the billions of eternities that took place before you came into the world would never be remembered or even acknowledged.

The very moment in which you are brought to this world wouldn’t normally be remembered by any lifeforms either; this is because the brains which selves occupy must spend some time in development before they gain the capability of memory. However, this lifeform was no run-of-the-mill organism. As its id and ego slowly floated down from the sea of souls into the physical world, they both became artificially linked to a device designed to create and store memories from the get-go, which allowed this new addition to the world to vividly remember every single one of the few nanoseconds it had so far spent alive. Another poetic irony to behold: It was only those with no natural birth to celebrate that would receive the honor of witnessing their own “birth”.

He slowly began to process what was going, and the fact that things were going on, along with the concepts of facts and concepts themselves. It was absolutely bizarre, to have the absolute need to be confused at what strange new world you’ve been thrown into… only to realize that it’s the only you’ve ever known. Surely, all who were created this way must’ve felt the same amount of genuine, humane confusion.

Then, his senses began to appear one by one. He began to hear the chattering and murmuring of a few others, along with some footsteps here and there and the occasional sound of objects being picked up or put down. Then, information began to fill his mind. Though he could not feel anything in physical terms, somehow he just knew that the platform he was standing on was made of cold, solid metal. And though he could not smell, somehow he just knew that the air circulating the room he was in smelled like various chemicals, particularly (and somewhat alarmingly) asbestos. How did he know all this if he couldn’t even smell or feel? And more importantly, how did he know what metal, chemicals and asbestos were? Who had taught him that? Now that he thought about it, how was he so precisely sure that he was a he? For all the bizarre information he knew, ironically the only thing he wanted to know was out of his reach: Who was he? What was he?

Then, as if on cue, his final sense came into play. First it was a sequence of lines of code on a digital display, then it was video static, and then…


All he could manage to do was look up in a genuine humane confusion at the woman standing before him. Was she the one who had brought him into this world? He couldn't explain why, but a deep inner gutural instinct... one that he was able to recognize as human and non-human at the same time... it told him to protect this woman at all costs. Though there were more than a million words at his disposal, there was one specific word that flooded all of his methods of thinking at once, and that word began with "m".

It didn't happen instantaneously, not for them anyway, who could only observe the miracle play out through their own limited perspectives. Seconds passed without any sign of life from the creation and each one felt like an eternity to Asteria. Nevertheless, doubt did not grip her mind; anticipation festered within her heart, her soul burning with the same Promethean fire that she had ignited within the being before her. When his eyes flickered red and Selenus looked up at her for the very first time, she was rewarded with a feeling no words could properly describe, an all-consuming emotion which swelled up within her and nearly forced her to the brink of joyful tears.

The sound of scribbling began instantaneously and the quiet murmurs evolved into a sea of excited whispers, a cacophony of glee and curiosity only kept at bay by the barrier. For a moment this was the only sound across the lab until Asteria herself began to speak. Her hand shot up to her glasses and adjusted them slightly in a swift blur, her mouth stretching open as her mind searched for the right first words to say to the newly born. "Who----" She started slowly only for a deafening, ear-pounding beep to silence her and everyone else in the area. Immediately following it, a voice made its way into the room via several microscopic speakers, soundwaves bouncing off the walls and homing in on the android. It was deadpan, blunt, straight-to-the-point; Xavier was eager to get the procedures underway and cared very little for idle chit-chat with a machine.


A response was awaited. Asteria considered speaking up, but for now she remained speechless, waiting to see what he would say as she studied him with her gaze: curious, caring, concerned.

These… these were humans, weren’t they? Were these the people who created him? If they were the people who brought him here from nothingness, then how did they not know what or who he was? There was no way they really knew, right? Otherwise, why would they be asking? “I…” I what? What was he? Who was he? Suddenly, as if on cue, a response arrived on the creature’s mind. A name ingrained onto his very being before he had even begun to exist.

“S…” he shyly began, still getting used to operating his ability to speak. “S…Se…le…nus” Was that his name? Why did he know that? Why did that senseless word bring him pride? And wh was this woman…. This person in front of him… looking at him?

What had been asked was a simple question (at least for the scientists anyway), but the answer that the unit had provided would prove to be surprisingly explosive. Inside the isolated room where creator and creation were it couldn't be heard, but a flurry of whispers would ignite amongst the staff at what had been such an innocuous response. Xavier and Janette would exchange perplexed glances at each other and in that brief moment of confusion would pause their inspection, although that state of disorientation certainly wouldn't last for long. These were trained professionals after all; they weren't going to sit and dawdle over one tiny little detail, let alone simply shrug their shoulders and move on. Whatever it was that had caught them off guard, they'd easily regain their footing soon, that was certain.

In the meantime though, Asteria had been fortunate enough to get a chance to speak to Selenus while those watchful eyes of theirs were elsewhere. After having been interrupted by that intercom that was very refreshing. Suppressing a slightly devious giggle at the expense of her colleagues, the woman would offer a gentle and approving smile to him while nodding her head slowly in confirmation. "That's correct. Your name is Selenus." She spoke somewhat slower than she normally did knowing that it was likely difficult for him to swiftly process all the information he was being bombarded with, but she didn't draw out her words too much instead attempting to balance the speed of her voice carefully. "My name is Dr. Evans, but you may call me whatever makes you most comfortable. I'm your creator. You should have access to some information about me if you're interested, but for now, you should try and look up your serial number. If you need any help I'll be right here, so don't worry." There was much, much more she wanted to say. None of what she was conveying was even close to scratching the surface of what she wanted to tell him, but it'd have to do for now. After all, this examination was a vital part of the project, and delaying it would help no one. Giving him a quick pat on the head and ceasing her whispers, Asteria would cross her fingers and hope for the best as the process resumed.

This woman was his creator, then? Suddenly, the word that had been floating around in his mind made a lot more sense. If she wished for him to call her whatever it was that he was the most comfortable calling her, then… “M…mother…” His second word ever had been not what his ego went by, but that which – from the moment of his conception – was the most important to him. As he was patted by mother, Selenus would instinctively rub his head against her hand in a recpicrocation of the gesture. Why did he do that? This emotion that he felt upon seeing mother and being patted by her… he was unfamiliar with it, but he didn’t object to it. It felt good to feel this way, it brought him happiness; happiness was good. He liked happiness. This emotion was love in its purest form; familial love. “I…”

Before he could continue what he wanted to say – what would’ve been his first sentence – Selenus was asked to provide a serial number by the disembodied voice. Serial number? He recalled a piece of information similar to that, but he didn’t like it. It brought him sadness to be called by a serial number. Sadness brought pain; pain was bad, he didn’t like pain. Regardless, the disembodied voice asked a question. To not answer would be chaotic; would be against conduct. “My… serial number…. Is K9-Q36i.” He would answer with confidence. Confidence was reassuring; he liked confidence.