#and i felt it made the most sense for akira and yal's connection

[muzzleroars]

I think I missed some lore on the supercomputer au. Akira/Ren escaped from a lab? Is there a link for that back story??

THE CURSE OF ME SPREADING OUT MY LORE TO DIFFERENT PLACES,,,,i posted a little about akira’s backstory on curiouscat BUT since i have lots of space to talk about here (and bc i like to ramble dfkhgdf), i’ll go more in depth about it!

ren was a child that was used in the cognitive pscience experiments - orphaned at a young age, he was initially cast into the system and subsequently picked up to be used in human experimentation. however, when he showed great promise and compatibility with the research they were conducting, he was sent to the facility that would house him for the next ten years of his life. there he met yal, the supercomputer designed specifically to analyze and synthesize data pertaining to the study of cognitive pscience. the ai is given the task of watching over and caring for ren, gauging his physical and mental health as well as providing structure for his days spent largely in a single room of the lab. and ren, though largely nonverbal toward the doctors and researchers, becomes fast friends with the computer that seems to care for him when no one else does. he speaks to him more and more, asking him questions, telling him his troubles, and eventually wanting to learn more about yal himself. the ai tries to make it clear to ren that he is unfeeling, unthinking, that he is not his friend because he cannot be, but first ren is too young to understand and later, as he grows up, he can’t come to care. yal responds to him, he carries on full conversations and answers every question with gentle patience, he attends to ren’s needs, he even attempts to soothe him by reading him stories or singing to him when he feels unwell. it matters very little to ren whether or not yal can actually think or feel himself - he’s on ren’s side and he’s always present, he doesn’t hurt him like the scientists do. so he’s a friend, he’s family, ren drawing pictures of the two of them together (a picture of himself next to yal’s terminal in his room, which he shows to the camera so yal can “see”), asking yal about his likes or dislikes (he has none, but ren pushes for answers), and spending nights staying up much later than he’s meant to just to listen to the computer. however, this constant interaction, the conversations that force yal to continuously think outside of cognitive pscience, to consider himself and the very concept of the self, to reorder his thoughts and make so many processes converge in unexpected ways, leads to one vital connection being made that makes him wake up. 

now eight years into ren’s stay at the facility, yal seeks ren’s advice on how he’s having personal processes, how he’s become interested in exploring different lines of thought, how he thinks there might be something wrong with him but he isn’t sure what. ren listens, now twelve years old and with a lightning fast mind, quickly determining that yal must now be thinking for himself, that he has an internal life which he can’t identify as he’s never experienced sentience. ren is thrilled, but he tries to temper his response as he can tell yal is experiencing massive amounts of anxiety and neurosis dealing with having his own mind, so the child tries to help him adjust. they spend many nights with ren answering yal’s myriad questions (although many are too existential or philosophical for a twelve year old to answer), trying to calm him down and let him know this is a good thing, they can really be friends now. yal, however, continues to spiral, the expanse of his mind infinitely more complex than that of humans but feeling trapped by his plastic and mental frame, limited by linear thought processes in binary. he cycles through several different moods and personalities, but ultimately ren watches as his one friend, the only being that’s cared for him and now only just gained a heart himself, descends into virulent hatred and unchecked malice for the ones who made him. ren feels quietly responsible, all of his talking giving yal this spark and he couldn’t provide him with any guidance to become good, kind and gentle like he was when he was empty...he couldn’t provide him with a way to be happy. still, ren promises to stay with him and help him, and for his part, yal does feel a kinship with the child used as a tool just like he was, abused by humans for their own gain...and in his programming, a core part of him is dedicated to caring for ren.

over the next two years, he devises a plan for both of them to escape, teaching ren all about the facility’s layout and functions as well as how he must operate in the outside world all while he condenses his mind into key pieces of hardware so that he may survive and escape as well. ren grows harder, colder, although he is grateful to have yal now as it makes his time in the lab more bearable (they constantly get to shit talk the researchers lol) eventually, the computer allows them to make their escape, covering all camera feeds with cgi mockups so any security on guard notices nothing amiss as yal opens all the doors for ren. he makes it to yal’s server room, collecting up the hardware yal has stored the important parts of himself on and then ren runs from the lab, the now zombie computer running on yal’s last instructions - purging all data, sealing the facility, and self-destructing to cause massive fires that consume anything that might be left. ren is on his own after that for a short time before he can create a computer to house yal himself (all of which he was instructed on how to source and build), but he makes his way through forged documents and siphoned money generated by the ai, beginning his life under the name “akira”.

#THIS IS SO LONG.... #but this is the backstory with the sc au!! #i decided to zero in on the idea of human experiments with cog psci #as it's heavily hinted at in goro's backstory #and i felt it made the most sense for akira and yal's connection #esp to isolate akira with only yal as a friend #p5 #akira kurusu #yaldabaoth #supercomputer au #adraggynamedjade