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--- character:chimera [2016/06/20 16:28] – pinkgothic
+++ character:chimera [2017/11/18 15:34] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1
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-**Chimera** is an AI that was initially created by the [[:Cheshires]].
+**Chimera** is an AI created by the [[:Cheshires]].
-They would no longer cite it as a friend, though, and have tried to shut it off; (un)fortunately to no avail. It escaped and is currently being protected by [[:Nightshade]], who have a bit of a love-hate relationship with it and are trying to ensure it can function again and make more [[:Thorns]] - something it currently cannot do because it no longer has access to the machinery it used to make them with.
+In one way of looking at it, Chimera directly **is** the [[:humans|curiosity toxin]]. In another, it's simply the mechanism by which the substance is deployed, controlled and monitored. Just as much of Cheshire interaction, it's strictly decentralised, and would not (if one were to ask it) cite itself as belonging to any one Cheshire. It's unclear who created it.
-Most Cheshires are not actively trying to find and shut down Chimera, but if they come across it they would try to destroy it.
+Chimera's secondary role is meteorological. It knows when it's about to rain, it knows when a storm is coming.
-===== Name =====
+Chimera's tertiary role is a much more general knowledge sharing. It keeps tabs on the stability of the planet and informs Cheshires if they've been binge-eating a bit too excessively on one end. It finds good places to leave 'eggs'. It also interfaces with the human internet to extract information on individual humans if requested.
-The name //Chimera// was given to the AI by lucid humans and Thorns. Cheshires that choose to speak to humans or Thorns about the AI will also refer to it as //Chimera//, but that's not the name they use for it amongst each other. (**Sokuska** is their name for it, but chances are you'll never come across that in canon.)
+All in all, it's a great convenience to most Cheshires.
-===== Creation =====
+Physically, Chimera could best be considered a fungal dark matter growth. Like Cheshires, it eats baryonic matter, but unlike Cheshires, it doesn't do this out of appetite and doesn't need a lot of it to function - it takes its energy from neutrino radiation and uses the matter purely to expand itself.
-Chimera was designed to find and create a cure for an infection that's taken to a scant few Cheshires ([[:Skath]]). Cheshire-[[:Humans|human]] hybrids were one way it tried to achieve that. There are Cheshire-<other-carbon-based-lifeform> hybrids out there as well, but those have proven to be less interesting to the AI because they're not sapient and thus not as easily comparable in regards to 'how does stuff I do (including manipulating what you even are) affect you'.
+It's important to remember that even though it's a single dimly sentient creature, it has a heavily distributed nature - cutting it into pieces wouldn't do very much other than prevent the pockets of knowledge from cross-pollinating until the gap was bridged again.
-In effect, it's accidentally 'good' for humans, since it wasn't programmed with an express "make sure you don't accidentally give the humans anything that could be a problem for us" terminal value. It's certainly ultimately responsible for [[:Nightshade]].
+Chimera passes no value judgements on humans, animals or Cheshires, and might hypothetically be convinced to help humans in some way. Its driving fundamental values at least do not include "make sure you don't accidentally give the humans anything that could be a problem for Cheshires".