Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves

Yup, our show goes up next week. I'm really excited! Anyone who wants to come, contact me, kay? Kay. There was no rehearsal today and I was glad of it, because I know we are ready, save for a bit of polishing here and there, and everything has gone fairly smoothly. No major disasters....knock on wood. Phew, close one.
Anyway, today I finished a picture, and I actually REALLY like it...it's a girl on her knees, in a kind of future-ey space suit (you know, the kind that is a tight, breast exposing shirt, a thong, and in actual space would be completely useless for protection but because it's on an anime character it looks oh-so hot and plausible) crying. The left half of her face, the middle finger on her left hand, and sections on her torso, right arm, and right thigh are missing the skin. Exposed is the shining metal and many cords of an android. Coming out of her back are many wires, flowing behind her. Her face is one of shock, sadness, and fear. In the background, in black and white, is an image of her from the chest up, carressing her naked self with eyes closed, and hair flowing as if she was feeling the wind for the first time. The title is "You told me I was human!"
Now, I don't want anyone thinking I need to be put in a padded room, so I am going to explain the premise behind the picture.
Basically, I thought it would be cool.
But moreso than that is that I imagined a Gundam Seed/Xenosaga-like environment. You know...two space colonies at war or something. And I imagined that there was both humans and androids on the one ship, and although most people co-habited with the androids perfectly well, some people don't like the androids, and the feeling was growing. And then the scientists created a "perfect android", who was beautiful, strong, a completely artificial intelligence. Able to think, and yet not prone to true human emotions that often are a fault in the intergalactic battlefield. They wanted her to be completely compatible with all the people on the ship, but due to rising tensions between humans and androids, they decided to program her so that she would think she too was human, as it would not cause a mutiny among the soldiers (androids are not programmed to disobey orders. Obviously.)
So she was made, and had memories of her childhood, parents, life before coming to the ship installed in her. As far as anyone was concerned, even her, she was a specially trained soldier sent by the government to aid in the military effort. Only one crew member knew of her true identity, a handsome young man who was the son of one of the scientists, and told to moniter the perfect android closely, and relay all of her data back to the scientists in secret. When the android got "tired" (she could go much longer without "sleep" than a human), she would go to bed, the crew man would pull out many cords from her back, undetectable even to her, and plug them into the ships computer system, simultaneously recharging her battery. Everything was fine for a while, with her growing more and more powerful everyday. One hitch, though.
He had fallen in love with her.
And it would seem that she loved him too.
For the scientists did not realize that they had made her artificial intelligence so powerful she had created her own emotions matrix. And the young soldier, who was obviously the closest to her, had become the object of her affection. And yet, she loved all. She had many friends on board, and fond "memories" of her parents and home. But she felt sad, too. Everytime she saw an android (they were easy to spot, because although they had the bodies of and faces of humans, they were constructed of metal and were extraordinarily beautiful, plus they all wore blue uniforms and humans wore grey/red) she felt a pain in her "heart" (it was actually her motherboard). One day she and the soldier, who was off duty, were taking a stroll around the ship, and they came upon the android quarters. Some of the androids were in their recharging bays, standing stiff like oversized metal dolls in their glass cases, eyes blank and staring like lightbulbs that have been turned off, and various plugs and wires going in between them and the vast computer panels that ran along the space. And the perfect android felt something very strange inside of her. More than sadness. A connection. Something electric. And not "electric" the way humans describe it. Something physically electric, like a blue flash in front of her eyes. And a thought came to her that she had never considered before, and she became very sad and put her hands against the glass panels that the inactive androids resided behind. And she said something very strange to her love.
"Am I human?"
The man was taken back. He, of course, knew the answer. And he knew if he told her it would ruin the whole experiment, and the mission. But it was not that which really shocked him. It was the look of deep pain on her face, the quiver in her quiet voice that he hadn't thought even such an advanced piece of technology such as herself was capable of. He wanted to tell her the truth, she deserved to know, and damn his father and the other scientists. But she looked so sad, so human, he could not bare it.
"Yes," he said, and he took her in his arms and held her for a long time.
Eventually, a large fight between the two halves came, and it was a fierce battle. Many lives had been lost on both side, plently of androids destroyed, and it was harder to fight with the now hundreds of soldiers who despised androids. The perfect android was performing perfectly, and had infiltrated the enemy ship with ease. The man found it easier to look at her, as she seemed more like the robot she truly was. When she battled, her eyes were stealy, she was the picture of stealth. Less human. As they entered an empty mecha storage facility on board the enemy ship, they found it to be quite deserted. The other soldiers were bringing up the rear, and it was just the perfect android and her love in the room, assessing the situation. The perfect android made her calculations, and proceeded with caution. But, due to an inteference in the electrical field, (she thought it was a headache) she made a small but terrible miscalculation. She was standing in the open, and was about to make the signal to continue...
Suddenly, a lazer bullet from a hidden enemy's gun came streaking towards her. The perfect android was still dealing with her "headache" and was slowing down now. The man saw the danger and in a split second had pushed her out of the way and was struck himself. The bullet got him in abdomen, and he fell like a stone. The perfect android was at his side in a moment, looking horrified. Before she could say anything, the enemy threw a grenade and fled. She flung her body over her love to protect him. As the smoke cleared, she became more oriented. She saw him, bleeding, but concious. But she was confused by the expression on his face, that of complete sorrow and regret. As she put her hand up to try and stop the bleeding, she saw her left hand and fell silent and still.
The middle finger was missing all of it's skin. Instead of flesh and bone, she saw sleek metal and intricate wiring. As she began to shut down (the explosion had damaged her system) she caught her reflection in the gleaming metal plating of a mecha. Some skin on her arm, hand, leg, and torso had been melted away to reveal her technological frame. But most of all, the skin on the left side of her face was completely gone, exposing a smooth titanium cheek, a few broken wires, and a blue lens that was the exact same colour as her eyes. She felt a weight behind her, and discovered that many of the cords used to secretly send data to the scientists were dangling out of her broken back panel. She turned back to her love, who was clutching his side and fading fast. For the first time she could ever remember, knowing now that her memories were false, nothing but computer code, she began to cry. From her remaining eye, the same beautiful blue as the lens, large and real tears began to flow. Her love tried to speak, but he knew that even if he could have found his voice, he would not have known what to say. Nothing he could have said would have helped her, and the tears she cried hurt him more than the bullet wound in his side.
And then, with more emotion and sense of betrayal and sadness and pain than anyone with a real heart could have summoned, she spoke to her love.
"You told me I was human!"
And with one last desperate look at his eyes, she shut down completely and fell back and became nothing more than a broken computer. And the only thing that remained of her humanity were the perfect silver tears that shone on her cheek.

Yes, I realize that that was very long, and probably very boring. And I came up with it all as I drew a picture within an hour. So it's a bit weird, undoubtedly. You'd be surprised how often I come up with complete storylines behind my characters that I only ever draw on a whim.
I also realize that this had nothing to do with gypsies, tramps, or thieves, but I like to keep my readers on their toes.
Now, instead of doing the song that the title obviously suggests (Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves by Cher) we're going with something more fitting of the main content of this blog.

Musical Quote of the Day

"The year is 2029, the machines will convince us that they are concious, that they have their own agenda worthy of our respect. They'll embody human qualities, they'll claim to be human, and we'll believe them...

Well it's good to know that you'll be okay
I've been waiting for this
And I'll be there to sit while you pray
No one's blaming me
I'm not supposed to wait
When they open up your heart

Oh I
I have been good
I understood
Like a machine I'll fix you from the start
I'm in repair
Life that share
I know that I'll be lost and
But we're always in repair

Lock the door"

-Our Lady Peace Title: In Repair
The whole song fits so perfectly, but I am tired.

-Our Lady Peace Title: