Work Text:
ade, Peony, and a moral compass in the face of fomicry.
Peony was a restless sleeper. He tossed, he turned, he talked to himself, he wrestled with covers and pillows and every now and then rolled right out of bed. As a result, he usually woke at least once during the night, whether he remembered it or not.
That night, he woke to an uncomfortable crick in his neck and the distinct impression that something was missing. Also to an uncomfortably distinct need to use the bathroom, but that was easily taken care of. As he wandered back to bed, the nagging feeling of absence tugging at his sleep-fogged mind, his eyes passed over the battlefield trenches and craters of his bed. Even in the moonlight filtering through the curtains, he could see how his side of the bed held crumpled blankets and pillows twisted and squished into unnatural shapes. The other side was serene by comparison, only a long, faint impression left on the mattress, where the covers had been neatly laid back.
"Mmmph," Peony said, rubbing his eyes. That was what was missing: one childhoood friend, genius fonist, and occasional lover.
Peony seriously considered crawling back in bed. Jade often left in the middle of the nights they spent together, either because he had something that needed doing or because he couldn't sleep through Peony's nightly war with the bedding. But Peony was already up and awake, and Jade had been acting strange lately: distracted and distracting, swinging between not wanting to be disturbed and being all too willing to start an argument for the sake of arguing or to flirt until one or the other of them (usually Peony) broke and dragged them both to bed.
Like tonight. Peony smiled, stretching and feeling the slight ache in arms and back, the bite in the muscle of his shoulder, and the more pleasant ache in other places. All of which were excellent reasons to go find Jade.
A quick survey turned up a pile of rappigs sleeping in Peony's sitting room (where they were always banished when Jade slept over, for reasons that Peony pretended not to understand) but no Jade anywhere in the imperial apartments. Peony nearly went back to bed again, as this episode of Jade-hunting was obviously going to require roaming the halls, which would require either getting his feet cold or hunting down shoes. The decision was all but made for him, though, when he spied his slippers halfway under the bed. Peony slipped them on with a sigh. "The things I do for you, Jade...." He headed for the door.
Then he stopped and put on pants. Mostly out of consideration for his guards, who sometimes were rattled by the lack of such things.
A short search found Jade in his study. Peony paused at that, looking down at the light spilling under the door to almost touch the noses of his stuffed rappig slippers. Jade's study also doubled as a miniature laboratory, when Jade was caught by some idea that could be safely contained in a small space. And a Jade who was in the lab was a Jade to be interrupted very carefully, for safety's sake. Peony had learned this lesson early, in a place much colder than Grand Chokmah.
He knocked...then knocked again, until he heard a distracted "mmm?", and slipped inside.
Evidently he needn't have worried, as the only thing on the workbench was a few errant fonstones, a crumpled scratchpad filled with much-erased fonic arrays, and Jade's discarded blue uniform jacket. Jade himself was at his desk in his black undertunic, his hair tucked behind his ears as he pored over an open volume, his hand taking notes off to the side apparently of its own accord.
Peony skirted the side of the desk, stuffed rappigs stepping carefully over a tottering stack of notebooks leaning against its side. He found a safe spot behind Jade's chair and wrapped his arms around Jade's shoulders. "You know what they say about all work and no play," he said, smiling into Jade's neck.
"Hmm." Jade tilted his head to look at Peony out of the corner of his eye, a slight smile playing on his lips. "I would have thought you'd had enough play for one evening, your majesty."
Something loosened in Peony's chest, that Jade was not so lost in his arrays and equations that he couldn't joke. Peony grinned, finding an ear among the honey fall of Jade's hair and nipping it lightly. "You know me. I'm such a fun-loving guy...."
"Mmm. Indeed."
Ah, but there went the pen again, scratching a few more lines. Peony tried not to pout...too much. He couldn't win over Jade's first love all the time, he supposed. He rested his chin on Jade's shoulder. "Is this what's had you distracted the last few days?"
"Have I been distracted?"
"You have. Sometimes. Other times it's like you're procrastinating."
Jade smiled slightly. "You would know all about that, wouldn't you?"
"Well, it's nice to be good at something."
"Mmmm." Jade, very carefully, set down his pen. He closed the book and looked away from the page in front of him, slowly turning to meet Peony's eyes.
Peony frowned, not liking something he saw there. Something uncertain where no uncertainty usually dared tread. He took Jade's face in his hands, cupped between his palms, and kissed him gently. Jade sighed, some of the tension running out of him as Peony left a final kiss on his brow and pulled back. "What is it?" he asked softly.
Jade looked back at the pages strewn on his desk. The symbols and formulae on them were much too advanced for Peony to even begin to decypher. All he could identify was two or three different sets of handwriting mixed in with Jade's own.
Jade pulled off his glasses, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I've finally had time to go over the notes we took from Dist's laboratory."
Peony settled his chin on Jade's shoulder, waiting.
Jade considered for a moment. "I...take back a few of the things I said about Saphir. As ridiculous as the man is, he is...innovative."
Peony smiled. "He's giving you ideas."
Jade tossed up a hand and frowned. "I worked for years to push fomicry's boundaries. To stretch the limitations of fonic manipulation and physical reconstruction, tease apart the principles of etheric memory and replication, squeeze the last bit of amplification from fonimin.... After looking at my notes again last year...trying to incorporate all I'd seen, I still came to the conclusion that some boundaries could not be breached. Fomicry of living beings would always be an imperfect science. Risky for the person being replicated and unfair to the replica, as even perfect replicas would have no memories, reduced fon slot capacity, risk of fonic degradation.... Fraught with ethical issues. Dangerous, as we saw all too clearly when the technology fell into Grants' hands. Best left...forbidden."
"Mmm," Peony agreed He'd heard this before, in another late-night conversation, months ago, then in even more impersonal terms, in a formal report filed with the Malkuth Science Ministry. Jade usually abhorred paperwork and politics, but he'd always been meticulous when it came to his research. His original fight to outlaw fomicry had been the stuff of legends, waged in paper and person and impassioned speeches full of phrases like "unacceptable ethical and technical issues". Peony suspected that part of the reason had also been pride: Jade had never been able to "perfect" fomicry, and the idea of others using his flawed creation irked him. That pride, Peony suspected, was also at the heart of this current tirade. "Aaaaand?"
Jade scowled. "And evidently Dist the Runny had already recorded the key data on how to overcome at least half of these issues. In pages between a completely ridiculous pet theory on Seventh Fonon resonance, and a sickeningly sweet recipe for buttercream scones." He sat back in his chair in disgust. "I suppose even a trained baboon will produce genius, given enough time."
Peony laughed and tightened his arms around Jade's shoulders. "Is that what's got you so restless? That Saphir finally outdid you?" He grinned. Needling Jade's significant and mostly-justified pride was one of Peony's favorite pastimes, and he was obscurely proud that Saphir could join him at it, after so many years of chasing Jade's shadow.
Jade, however, didn't take the bait. He just turned in his chair so he could fully meet Peony's eyes. "His data leads quite naturally to a workable theory of how to create replicas perfect in a sense even beyond perfect isofons. Living replicas with complete memory and ability retention. No Big Bang required."
Peony frowned. "I thought you decided that that was impossible."
"I thought it was, given the data I had at the time." Jade waved a hand airily. "Evidently I am not infallible, as much as it pains me to admit it."
Peony cocked his head. "If Saphir could do that, why...?"
"Did he not use it? From what I can tell, because he did not fully realize what he had. He had the primary data on one nonhuman subject and had started to analyze it but never finished before Van set his plan in motion. Then he likely got distracted by trying to destroy the world. His last scribble of analysis just says, 'I need to repeat this'." Jade pushed a page around with one finger, then shrugged. "Fundamentally, it's merely more data on the Seventh Fonon's interactions with and within living beings. I don't even know if he was going to connect these fluctuations in fonic frequency to memory or fonic capacity. He seemed more fascinated by the gross physical changes, unable to see the--" He sighed and waved a hand. "Well. Unable to see. I suppose we should be thankful, all considered. I wouldn't have liked to have to fight replicas of the God Generals. And a replica of Dist doesn't even bear thinking on. Though I doubt they would have used it on themselves...I wouldn't expect the success rate to be above 70% or so, which would be too risky for your leaders. Mid-range troops, though...."
Peony just looked at Jade, feeling the smile fade from his face. He was emperor, though he hid it well, and he couldn't help but see the implications. "You...you're serious."
"Quite," Jade said. "As I said, it's not validated, but it is...a workable, testable hypothesis. One that I...I would predict as having a high probability of being correct." He looked back down at the notes on his desk. "It makes sense. It fits with my own data. It fills in a blind spot that I've tried to think through for years. It...." He stopped, closing his eyes. He took a deep breath and opened them again. "Yes. I'm serious."
Peony felt a sudden need to sit down. He did so on the edge of Jade's desk. "...oh."
"Yes. Meaning that if I'm right, I could take 100 of your best soldiers and give you back 140 of them...give or take a few, of course."
Yes. An extra 40 highly-trained men...who would have the exact same memories, the exact same experiences, the exact same expectations.... Score, they'd...they'd want the same life as their original. Their families would suddenly have two of their loved one, parents with two copies of the same daughter, children with two fathers instead of one, or husbands with two wives....
Jade tilted his head back, thinking. "With a bit of further research--and the required storage capacity, of course--I can see downstream applications of archiving a...'backed up' copy of someone, so to speak, complete with memories, to be replicated whenever required. Said original would have to be fairly brave, as again, 1 in 4 chance of catastrophic signature failure during the scan, but still...it would be a rather interesting way to cheat death."
Peony closed his eyes. "That...is putting it lightly."
"You know me: I'm such a light-hearted guy."
"Have you told anyone else?"
"No." Jade leaned back in his chair and folded his hands across his stomach, looking the very picture of a man glad to have tossed someone else into his thorny moral dilemma. "How do you want to handle this?"
Peony rubbed his face with one hand. He knew he should have gone back to bed. "You're my best scientific advisor. What's your assessment?"
"Are you sure you want my advice?" Jade asked mildly. "I might be biased, given the subject matter. I could submit the data to the Science Ministry for review--"
"Jade." Yes, Peony definitely should have gone back to bed. Dealing with weighty matters of scientific ethics while half-asleep was one thing. Dealing with a touchy Jade was something entirely different. He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "I want to know what you think."
Jade's eyes crinkled at the corners, in a way that Peony knew meant, That's what you think. "It would be a powerful tool. A powerful weapon. And it would be the biggest scientific breakthrough this world has ever seen. I doubt that I have to give you a listing of the possible applications?"
Peony shook his head. The ones he could think of just off the top of his head were enough to make his stomach queasy.
"No, I didn't think so." Jade steepled his fingers. "Of course, testing of this hypothesis and its related applications is, at the moment, strictly forbidden, as is all fomicry research. The supposed changes in replica quality does not solve the ethical problems that led to outlawing fomicry and even add in a few new ones. The price of progress, I suppose. An improved fomicry process would be politically dangerous to implement in the current international climate, would cost lives, and would be quite monetarily expensive if my rough calculations on fonimin usage are correct. On the other hand, given that Dist is still at large, and that this was originally his data...it is possible that he might eventually come to the same conclusions I have, and take that knowledge elsewhere for development. In which case it would be a powerful tool and weapon in someone else's hands."
Peony nodded. As he'd thought. No surprises there. "Those are the facts," he pointed out. "What do you think? Fomicry is your life's work. Your creation. What do you want to do?"
"I am a colonel in the Malkuth military, subject of the Emperor of Malkuth and directly under his command," Jade said, and Peony didn't like that bland, genial tone at all. "What I want is not important, only what--"
"JADE."
"Yes, your majesty?"
Sometimes, Peony thought, silently counting to ten, it was a wonder that he had not already murdered Jade at some point. Peony opened his mouth, his mind tumbling with things he wanted to ask, to yell, to demand. Tell me what you want. You want to test this, don't you? Just to see if you can make it work. Just to see if it is true. Just to KNOW. Even though it is...has ALWAYS been a phenomenally bad idea, you still....
He snapped his mouth shut. Because he already knew that answer. Jade had already told him, in not answering the question the first time. In putting up his false sycophant facade to sidestep the issue. Of course he wanted to do it. Because fomicry was his, down to every replicated atom. And because he was Jade, and that burning drive to take things apart and see how they ticked, especially when it came to fomicry, was as much a part of him as the color of his eyes. Perhaps moreso, all considered.
Not that it mattered. It was awkward, having to make this decision in the face of what he knew Jade actually wanted, but there was really no decision to be made.
Jade watched him patiently.
Peony took a deep breath, let it out slowly. "I will not lift the ban on fomicry. It's as you said. It was unethical then, and it still is now, all these new...developments...aside. As such...there's no reason for Dist's findings to be made public. I won't help anyone to create more replicas, of any quality. We have perfectly good, though slower, ways of making new people. I know you don't like destroying any data, so bury his notes in the classified archives somewhere."
Peony wasn't sure what he'd expected. For Jade to look disappointed, perhaps, or to argue with him. Instead, oddly enough, Jade smiled and actually sounded pleased. "Yes, your majesty."
Peony squinted suspiciously. "...that's it? You have a shiny new science toy within your grasp and you're just going to...?" He flapped a hand eloquently.
"...follow your decision? Well, yes. I would be a poor soldier if I did not. Besides, I completely agree with you. This doesn't, essentially, change any of the ethical issues. It merely...alters the payoff for ignoring them." Jade gathered up the pages of notes and tapped them all together into a pile. He leaned an elbow on the desk, resting chin on fist as that smile grew wider. "I always find it interesting to present others with dilemmas where the ethical decision is not always the convenient or advantageous one. It's always informative, to watch the knots they'll tie themselves into, to justify ignoring their own moral constructs. I find hypocrisy so very amusing." He stood up, stretching slightly, and reached over, cupping Peony's cheek in a rare affectionate gesture. "You, on the other hand, I find very...reassuring."
Peony blinked at him, head cocked. "You like that I told you no?"
"I would have been very disappointed if you had told me anything else," Jade said. He leaned in, pressing a brief, fond kiss to Peony's lips. "You make a very good moral compass, your majesty."
Oh, Jade. What am I going to do with you? "...thank you?" Peony wound his arms around Jade's waist, resting his forehead against Jade's collarbone. His friend made a very bony pillow, but then Peony already knew that. "Do I get a prize?"
"Yes. In the form of an early meeting with your Defense Council. Which, I might add, we both need to be at in roughly four hours."
Peony made a face. "So that was a no to another round tonight, I take it?"
"Very astute, your majesty." Warm hands ran down Peony's bare arms before Jade stepped away, taking his warmth with him.
"Mmmph." Peony yawned, sliding off the desk and following Jade out of the study and down the hall to Jade's own rooms. He yawned again as he wandered right in and climbed into bed, stuffed rappig slippers and all.
Jade sighed in not-quite-annoyance as he set his glasses aside and undressed. "Why yes, of course, your majesty, you certainly may sleep here, since you've quite obviously misplaced your own bed."
Peony smiled, burrowing under the covers. A minute later, Jade turned off the light and joined him, wrapping one arm firmly around Peony's waist in an effort to keep him still.
--------
The next morning, on the way to the early Defense Council meeting, Jade carried a plain, bound package under one arm. An archivist was waiting outside the Council chamber, and Jade conversed quietly with her for a long moment, detailing exactly how obscure said package was to be made in the classified subarchives. She nodded, taking the package away with her.
Peony just smiled and continued smiling throughout the hours-long meeting, much to his Defense Council's bemusement.