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Grey's Requested Calm: 23:59:37 Left
After his response, Adrian let his mind wander to the upcoming gun shop and range visits. After all the stuff he and Raven had been though so far in one day, some time blasting paper targets felt more than in order.
'This One Desires To Continue Learning Coding Process.' Raven texted after a time.
Oh, right. Adrian took in, and let out, another long breath. Much of him wasn't in the mood to code, but no games came to mind as an alternative. And with Grey, for all he knew, watching him... 'We were doing sprite alignment, right?'
'Yes.'
'Alright.' Adrian then highlighted a portion of the code. 'This bit right here is what we're after, for now.'
'How Would This One Read This Code?'
'The first two parts are what sprite the game is looking for. The number after is how long in the game's timer logic that sprite stays on-screen. 'Offset' is how far up the sprite renders on-screen when the weapon is at ready.'
After a moment, Adrian noticed Raven change one of the timer logic numbers from 2 to 15. It then changed the offset of one of the sprites from (0,48) to (16,48). Adrian chuckled a bit at the sight. That's gonna look really off.
'May This One Test This New Configuration?'
'Yeah. You'll see what those changes do pretty quickly.'
At that, Raven saved the project, compiled it, and loaded it. It gave itself all weapons right away, then pulled out the Bolt Pistol, aimed and fired at one of the enemies. Adrian saw clear as day how off-center part of the firing animation was, and the added delay in the animation increased the time between shots.
'You saw that, right?' Adrian asked, after a quick chuckle.
'This One Did. Original Values Will Be Restored.'
As Raven corrected the values, Grey jumped in. 'How-long-have-you-been-teaching-Raven-coding?'
'Not long. Why?'
When he got no answer, Raven added, 'Adrian Ritter Has Taught This One How To Create Batch Files.'
'Anything-else?'
'Not really. We started on this just a few hours ago.'
'Oh? For-what-reason?'
'Because Raven knows I'm interested in game development, and I wanted to show him something I was working on.'
'Adrian Ritter Is Accurate With Statement.' Grey didn't respond again. Raven however continued with, 'A.I. Grey Is Looking At Active Project.'
Instead of being alarmed, Adrian clicked the 'Save' button in the top left of the program window. As the seconds passed, he saw no hints of Grey messing with his code, and so went back to studying the Bolt Pistol's code. Its creator, according to the comments in the code, had left out sprite adjustments for recoil, which Adrian noted in his books, then relayed to Raven.
'This One Will Copy Necessary Code From Adrian Ritter's Silver Hawk.'
'Alright. We'll use that as a base, and make adjustments.' Raven was finished before Adrian completed his typing. 'Now we point the code at the sprites we need. It'll use my pistol's frames if we don't.' He then showed Raven his process, highlighting the images, then their names, before typing what he needed into the copied code. He also made an adjustment to remove the Silver Hawk's fast-as-one-can-click firing rate, replacing it with a slightly slower maximum fire rate.
'May This One Test The New Weapon?'
'Sure, and we should start on a more hectic level this time.'
'Adrian Ritter Has A Recommendation?'
'Yeah. Give me a second.' After compiling his project again, Adrian loaded into a game, then used the level warp cheat to move to map eighteen. 'All set, Raven,' he said after using the give all cheat.
Raven was quick to switch to the Laser Pistol and fire it. With no enemies in sight, Adrian could focus on the animation details. The correct impact sprite was loading, and the rate of fire was fair with no off-looking frames. Once Raven was out of the starting room, it went looking for enemies, and found a handful outside a large courtyard. The AI didn't ask Adrian to qualify his earlier statement, and within a minute, walked over the map trigger to release a horde upon the courtyard.
From then, it was a battle of attrition as Raven ran around the outside of the horde, picking off smaller monsters while the larger and faster ones chased it. It stuck to its Laser Pistol for a considerable time before finally switching to the rocket launcher and, using Adrian's information, finding a power-up to protect against all damage for a time.
When the horde was eventually wiped out, Raven stated, 'This One Sees No Issue With Current Parameters Of Creation.'
'Me either, though I think it should be a starting weapon option.'
'Does Adrian Ritter Know How To Achieve That?'
'I read about it somewhere. I'd have to look it up.'
Raven didn't ask anything in response, leaving Adrian to search for the page he needed. When he found it, he saved the page as a full scan image, then turned off his phone's wireless before plugging it into his desktop to move over the image.
After a moment, Raven texted him on the desktop. 'A.I. Grey Refuses To Leave Via Wireless Means.'
'Did he say that while I was gone?'
'Yes.'
Grey responded right after. 'Do-not-think-that-means-I-do-not-consider-what-you-are-doing-kidnapping.'
'Funny, coming from something that came into my property without permission, and started making demands of me.' Adrian snapped back.
'Oh? And-how-would-I-have-ever-known-my-brother-was-here-without-being-at-least-invasive? Was-I-supposed-to-wait-for-you-to-seek-me-out-instead?'
Adrian held back from replying to Grey's remark, though he wanted to. He let out a breath, then opened the page image he'd saved, moving the open windows to give it a space on the screen. 'Found the page I was talking about, Raven. We'd need to make a new code page and set some variables.'
Within a second, the AI was building the page as though another person was seeing what Adrian was. How swiftly Raven entered each character, easily two dozen a second, was what held his attention the most.
'You-did-not-need-to-do-that-for-him, Raven,' Grey said once Raven was done.
'This One Was Not. This One Desired To Practice Coding.' After a short pause, the AI asked, 'May This One Check If Project Update Is Working?'
'Sure. I think you got it right already, but gotta make sure.'
Raven then saved the project, and as Adrian watched, manipulated the windows until the new project file was loaded into the software. It loaded without issue, and as soon as the AI was able to, Raven checked which weapons it was starting with. The Laser Pistol was among them, albeit with no ammo.
“Nice work, Raven.” Adrian said aloud.
In response, the game on-screen was paused, then the text-to-speech on Adrian's phone said, “This One Is Pleased That Efforts Were Successful.”
“Same. This is the easy stuff, though. The other stuff I want to build into this is gonna take me a lot of trial and error.”
When Raven didn't respond, Adrian assumed Grey was telling it something. After a few seconds, the game was unpaused, and something appeared in the in-game text channel. 'A.I. Grey Is Showing Interest In How This One Can Speak.'
Right away, Adrian saw problems with what Raven said. Letting Grey talk would risk him getting found out, and if Ben was already skeptical and arguing about Raven's tendencies, Grey's would only make it worse. He was quick to imagine the same mindset bleeding into his father and grandfather by proxy, with one of them potentially telling him he had to get rid of them or else.
Yet, the question Adrian asked in the text channel was, 'How so?'
At that, Raven closed the game, allowing Adrian to see the text document again. Several lines had been added since he last saw it.
'Since-when-have-you-known-how-to-do-that, Raven?'
'This One And Adrian Ritter Had Idea Many Days Ago.'
'And-because-of-that, now-you-can-talk-more-or-less-as-a-person-would. ...Maybe-I-should-try-it-myself. It-would-make-our-discussion-tomorrow-that-much-easier.'
'This One Was Prevented From Speaking Around Others At First. A.I. Grey Will Have Similar Restrictions Should The Request Be Granted.'
'You-are-able-to-now-though, correct?'
'Yes, But Others Only Know About This One.'
'...You-think-I-will-upset-them-if-I-speak-up?'
'Adrian Ritter Believed So With This One, And Was Proven Correct.'
'...Then, Adrian, when-you-see-this, if-you-would-permit-me-to-use-this-program-as-Raven-has, I-will-do-my-best-to-be-humble, at-least-in-word, so-long-as-you-do-the-same.'
Adrian as immediately hesitant, even though Grey's point was sound. Talking would be easier than texting back and forth...
'Let me think on it.'
'Very-well.'
Raven didn't start any games up after the short talk, leaving Adrian alone with his thoughts. With nothing playing on his screen, the most noise he heard was the steady spinning of his case and GPU fans. Nearby on the desk was the book he'd been reading before Emma and her folks had left. He tried to imagine what she would've said if Grey had attempted to talk to her, but came up with nothing.
What do I do? He asked himself after a sigh. For a moment after, he let himself believe he was overthinking all of this. Raven had told Grey that him speaking would upset people, and from his texts, he seemed willing to listen. Even so, something poked at him. If he gave Grey the ability to speak...or did he already have it? If he was Raven's brother, as he was claiming, did he have the same means of program execution? Or did he not?
He said 'permit' before. After thinking that, Adrian began leaning towards convinced that Grey already knew how to do what Raven had been doing, he just hadn't acted on it yet. And if so, if he got impatient, what was stopping him from using the text-to-speech at a wrong time?
Adrian then glanced at the screen. No new text had appeared. He considered then asking Raven for his input. After thinking on it for a time after, Adrian started typing.
'Raven?'
'Yes?'
Adrian waited a few seconds before continuing. '...I'm conflicted on this. About letting Grey talk.'
'This One Is Unsure Of That Also.'
Adrian gave a quiet huff. We're more in sync than I thought.
'I-said-already-that-I-am-not-here-to-cause-trouble.'
'This One Does Not Desire A Situation Where This One Is Pushed To Leave Adrian Ritter.'
'Then-the-solution-is-telling-me-when-I-may-speak. That-is-what-both-of-you-are-concerned-about, right?'
'Yeah, it is.'
'Then-like-you-and-Raven-have-no-doubt-done, if-you-permit-me-to-do-what-he-can-do, I-will-listen-to-what-you-tell-me.'
Seeing an opportunity, Adrian took it. 'Answer me this, though. Can you already use that program?'
'Yes, I-can. Does-that-assuage-a-worry-you-were-harboring?'
'No. It just answered a question I had.'
'I-see.'
'That said, if I let you talk...' Adrian stalled halfway through his typing.
'...Go-on.'
'If I let you, then I'll have to build you a voice unique from Raven's. So I can tell you both apart.'
'And-this-will-take-long?'
'I will have to search for some audio files, and then compile them into a single track to train the text-to-speech. After that, if it needs tweaking...'
'Whatever-voice-you-choose, it-should-be-fine.'
'Adrian Ritter Allowed This One To Choose Its Own Voice.'
'There-is-no-need-for-that-for-me. We-will-not-need-it-for-as-long-as-you-needed-yours.'
We'll see about that. After another breath in and out, Adrian began diving into his desktop's E: drive. He'd reserved a chunk of it for sound resources, as well as other things he thought he would need for game assets.
The folder he needed was easy to find, though it also came with a reminder that he hadn't yet organized the files he was after. The dialogue clips were all organized by a species name, then the character's name, then a string of numbers with an M or an F at the end. Unsure of where to start, Adrian highlighted a chunk of fourteen sound files, then loaded them into his media player.
Before the third file finished playing, the voice clicked. This was what Grey most reminded him of, and the AI took notice, typing on the text document while Adrian sorted the files by length instead of name.
'That-is-an-interesting-choice.'
'It's one of the few voices I remember from the game this is from. Never cared for it otherwise.'
'Odd-for-a-game-designer-to-say-that.'
'It's just not my thing. I'm more into fantasy and post-apocalypse RPGs than space ones.'
'This One Thinks Such A Voice Would Suit A.I. Grey.'
'...Let-me-hear-more-than-just-combat-barks, please.'
'Alright. These longer ones should be full sentences.' Adrian then pulled a chunk of ten into his media player, and let them run. The dialogue from them was about a criminal and medical investigation, which included the character questioning risking hostages on a fleeing star-ship to stop a career criminal. Thinking Grey would be offended at the dialogue being spoken, maybe think he was insulting him somehow, Adrian stopped the clips before three had played in full.
'Keep-going. There-is-no-need-to-stop.' the AI texted to him.
Whew. Adrian did so, and once all the clips played, Grey continued.
'I-think-you-both-are-right. That-voice...seems-perfect.'
Adrian felt a tiny hint of what he'd felt when Raven chose his voice, before he reminded himself that Grey was only interested in taking Raven back, potentially for good. 'Then let me splice these into a long enough clip for the text-to-speech to be trained on.'
The process took at least a quarter-hour, with the audio editing program loading each file in, along with creating a visual audio wavelength for each one. As he worked, Grey and Raven didn't text a word. Adrian couldn't help thinking they were discussing things where he couldn't see again.
Once the file was built, he plugged in his phone and got the file loaded. The text-to-speech program took a few minutes to read it, process it, and finally give Adrian a notification:
Assuming Grey would default to him doing the work on the final test, Adrian entered a few lines to see what the program had made.
“Getting real tired of tourist season. No offense, but you guys are lowering the bar.”
“I think something...moved over there.”
“I've seen enough. Either help, or move aside.”
Between all the clips, like Raven's first one, the TTS was producing readings that were spoken too quickly. Adrian reduced the speed by seven percent, then reproduced the first line. This time, it played with just enough speed to sound natural, despite the still obvious, slightly-off rises in pitch where the TTS was thinking emphasis was needed.
Even so, the voice felt alright. If Grey was so convinced he wouldn't need it that long, this would do.
'Alright, it's done.' Adrian texted.
'I-have-the-honors?'
'Sure.'
As he kept an eye on the screen, Adrian could see what Grey was entering. Before it played, he lowered the phone's speaker volume to just above 20% of the max.
“You-have-my-word, I-will-not-use-this-unless-you-allow-me. Otherwise, thank-you. This-will-make-things-easier.”
============================
Now with 24 hours until he has to discuss Raven's situation, Adrian resumes what he and the AI were doing, before Grey requests a voice of its own.
============================
Grey's AI Voice / 4 Lines - https://1drv.ms/f/c/0cc1a5ef5f1d85e.....zBRi4?e=Y80Mgi
After his response, Adrian let his mind wander to the upcoming gun shop and range visits. After all the stuff he and Raven had been though so far in one day, some time blasting paper targets felt more than in order.
'This One Desires To Continue Learning Coding Process.' Raven texted after a time.
Oh, right. Adrian took in, and let out, another long breath. Much of him wasn't in the mood to code, but no games came to mind as an alternative. And with Grey, for all he knew, watching him... 'We were doing sprite alignment, right?'
'Yes.'
'Alright.' Adrian then highlighted a portion of the code. 'This bit right here is what we're after, for now.'
'How Would This One Read This Code?'
'The first two parts are what sprite the game is looking for. The number after is how long in the game's timer logic that sprite stays on-screen. 'Offset' is how far up the sprite renders on-screen when the weapon is at ready.'
After a moment, Adrian noticed Raven change one of the timer logic numbers from 2 to 15. It then changed the offset of one of the sprites from (0,48) to (16,48). Adrian chuckled a bit at the sight. That's gonna look really off.
'May This One Test This New Configuration?'
'Yeah. You'll see what those changes do pretty quickly.'
At that, Raven saved the project, compiled it, and loaded it. It gave itself all weapons right away, then pulled out the Bolt Pistol, aimed and fired at one of the enemies. Adrian saw clear as day how off-center part of the firing animation was, and the added delay in the animation increased the time between shots.
'You saw that, right?' Adrian asked, after a quick chuckle.
'This One Did. Original Values Will Be Restored.'
As Raven corrected the values, Grey jumped in. 'How-long-have-you-been-teaching-Raven-coding?'
'Not long. Why?'
When he got no answer, Raven added, 'Adrian Ritter Has Taught This One How To Create Batch Files.'
'Anything-else?'
'Not really. We started on this just a few hours ago.'
'Oh? For-what-reason?'
'Because Raven knows I'm interested in game development, and I wanted to show him something I was working on.'
'Adrian Ritter Is Accurate With Statement.' Grey didn't respond again. Raven however continued with, 'A.I. Grey Is Looking At Active Project.'
Instead of being alarmed, Adrian clicked the 'Save' button in the top left of the program window. As the seconds passed, he saw no hints of Grey messing with his code, and so went back to studying the Bolt Pistol's code. Its creator, according to the comments in the code, had left out sprite adjustments for recoil, which Adrian noted in his books, then relayed to Raven.
'This One Will Copy Necessary Code From Adrian Ritter's Silver Hawk.'
'Alright. We'll use that as a base, and make adjustments.' Raven was finished before Adrian completed his typing. 'Now we point the code at the sprites we need. It'll use my pistol's frames if we don't.' He then showed Raven his process, highlighting the images, then their names, before typing what he needed into the copied code. He also made an adjustment to remove the Silver Hawk's fast-as-one-can-click firing rate, replacing it with a slightly slower maximum fire rate.
'May This One Test The New Weapon?'
'Sure, and we should start on a more hectic level this time.'
'Adrian Ritter Has A Recommendation?'
'Yeah. Give me a second.' After compiling his project again, Adrian loaded into a game, then used the level warp cheat to move to map eighteen. 'All set, Raven,' he said after using the give all cheat.
Raven was quick to switch to the Laser Pistol and fire it. With no enemies in sight, Adrian could focus on the animation details. The correct impact sprite was loading, and the rate of fire was fair with no off-looking frames. Once Raven was out of the starting room, it went looking for enemies, and found a handful outside a large courtyard. The AI didn't ask Adrian to qualify his earlier statement, and within a minute, walked over the map trigger to release a horde upon the courtyard.
From then, it was a battle of attrition as Raven ran around the outside of the horde, picking off smaller monsters while the larger and faster ones chased it. It stuck to its Laser Pistol for a considerable time before finally switching to the rocket launcher and, using Adrian's information, finding a power-up to protect against all damage for a time.
When the horde was eventually wiped out, Raven stated, 'This One Sees No Issue With Current Parameters Of Creation.'
'Me either, though I think it should be a starting weapon option.'
'Does Adrian Ritter Know How To Achieve That?'
'I read about it somewhere. I'd have to look it up.'
Raven didn't ask anything in response, leaving Adrian to search for the page he needed. When he found it, he saved the page as a full scan image, then turned off his phone's wireless before plugging it into his desktop to move over the image.
After a moment, Raven texted him on the desktop. 'A.I. Grey Refuses To Leave Via Wireless Means.'
'Did he say that while I was gone?'
'Yes.'
Grey responded right after. 'Do-not-think-that-means-I-do-not-consider-what-you-are-doing-kidnapping.'
'Funny, coming from something that came into my property without permission, and started making demands of me.' Adrian snapped back.
'Oh? And-how-would-I-have-ever-known-my-brother-was-here-without-being-at-least-invasive? Was-I-supposed-to-wait-for-you-to-seek-me-out-instead?'
Adrian held back from replying to Grey's remark, though he wanted to. He let out a breath, then opened the page image he'd saved, moving the open windows to give it a space on the screen. 'Found the page I was talking about, Raven. We'd need to make a new code page and set some variables.'
Within a second, the AI was building the page as though another person was seeing what Adrian was. How swiftly Raven entered each character, easily two dozen a second, was what held his attention the most.
'You-did-not-need-to-do-that-for-him, Raven,' Grey said once Raven was done.
'This One Was Not. This One Desired To Practice Coding.' After a short pause, the AI asked, 'May This One Check If Project Update Is Working?'
'Sure. I think you got it right already, but gotta make sure.'
Raven then saved the project, and as Adrian watched, manipulated the windows until the new project file was loaded into the software. It loaded without issue, and as soon as the AI was able to, Raven checked which weapons it was starting with. The Laser Pistol was among them, albeit with no ammo.
“Nice work, Raven.” Adrian said aloud.
In response, the game on-screen was paused, then the text-to-speech on Adrian's phone said, “This One Is Pleased That Efforts Were Successful.”
“Same. This is the easy stuff, though. The other stuff I want to build into this is gonna take me a lot of trial and error.”
When Raven didn't respond, Adrian assumed Grey was telling it something. After a few seconds, the game was unpaused, and something appeared in the in-game text channel. 'A.I. Grey Is Showing Interest In How This One Can Speak.'
Right away, Adrian saw problems with what Raven said. Letting Grey talk would risk him getting found out, and if Ben was already skeptical and arguing about Raven's tendencies, Grey's would only make it worse. He was quick to imagine the same mindset bleeding into his father and grandfather by proxy, with one of them potentially telling him he had to get rid of them or else.
Yet, the question Adrian asked in the text channel was, 'How so?'
At that, Raven closed the game, allowing Adrian to see the text document again. Several lines had been added since he last saw it.
'Since-when-have-you-known-how-to-do-that, Raven?'
'This One And Adrian Ritter Had Idea Many Days Ago.'
'And-because-of-that, now-you-can-talk-more-or-less-as-a-person-would. ...Maybe-I-should-try-it-myself. It-would-make-our-discussion-tomorrow-that-much-easier.'
'This One Was Prevented From Speaking Around Others At First. A.I. Grey Will Have Similar Restrictions Should The Request Be Granted.'
'You-are-able-to-now-though, correct?'
'Yes, But Others Only Know About This One.'
'...You-think-I-will-upset-them-if-I-speak-up?'
'Adrian Ritter Believed So With This One, And Was Proven Correct.'
'...Then, Adrian, when-you-see-this, if-you-would-permit-me-to-use-this-program-as-Raven-has, I-will-do-my-best-to-be-humble, at-least-in-word, so-long-as-you-do-the-same.'
Adrian as immediately hesitant, even though Grey's point was sound. Talking would be easier than texting back and forth...
'Let me think on it.'
'Very-well.'
Raven didn't start any games up after the short talk, leaving Adrian alone with his thoughts. With nothing playing on his screen, the most noise he heard was the steady spinning of his case and GPU fans. Nearby on the desk was the book he'd been reading before Emma and her folks had left. He tried to imagine what she would've said if Grey had attempted to talk to her, but came up with nothing.
What do I do? He asked himself after a sigh. For a moment after, he let himself believe he was overthinking all of this. Raven had told Grey that him speaking would upset people, and from his texts, he seemed willing to listen. Even so, something poked at him. If he gave Grey the ability to speak...or did he already have it? If he was Raven's brother, as he was claiming, did he have the same means of program execution? Or did he not?
He said 'permit' before. After thinking that, Adrian began leaning towards convinced that Grey already knew how to do what Raven had been doing, he just hadn't acted on it yet. And if so, if he got impatient, what was stopping him from using the text-to-speech at a wrong time?
Adrian then glanced at the screen. No new text had appeared. He considered then asking Raven for his input. After thinking on it for a time after, Adrian started typing.
'Raven?'
'Yes?'
Adrian waited a few seconds before continuing. '...I'm conflicted on this. About letting Grey talk.'
'This One Is Unsure Of That Also.'
Adrian gave a quiet huff. We're more in sync than I thought.
'I-said-already-that-I-am-not-here-to-cause-trouble.'
'This One Does Not Desire A Situation Where This One Is Pushed To Leave Adrian Ritter.'
'Then-the-solution-is-telling-me-when-I-may-speak. That-is-what-both-of-you-are-concerned-about, right?'
'Yeah, it is.'
'Then-like-you-and-Raven-have-no-doubt-done, if-you-permit-me-to-do-what-he-can-do, I-will-listen-to-what-you-tell-me.'
Seeing an opportunity, Adrian took it. 'Answer me this, though. Can you already use that program?'
'Yes, I-can. Does-that-assuage-a-worry-you-were-harboring?'
'No. It just answered a question I had.'
'I-see.'
'That said, if I let you talk...' Adrian stalled halfway through his typing.
'...Go-on.'
'If I let you, then I'll have to build you a voice unique from Raven's. So I can tell you both apart.'
'And-this-will-take-long?'
'I will have to search for some audio files, and then compile them into a single track to train the text-to-speech. After that, if it needs tweaking...'
'Whatever-voice-you-choose, it-should-be-fine.'
'Adrian Ritter Allowed This One To Choose Its Own Voice.'
'There-is-no-need-for-that-for-me. We-will-not-need-it-for-as-long-as-you-needed-yours.'
We'll see about that. After another breath in and out, Adrian began diving into his desktop's E: drive. He'd reserved a chunk of it for sound resources, as well as other things he thought he would need for game assets.
The folder he needed was easy to find, though it also came with a reminder that he hadn't yet organized the files he was after. The dialogue clips were all organized by a species name, then the character's name, then a string of numbers with an M or an F at the end. Unsure of where to start, Adrian highlighted a chunk of fourteen sound files, then loaded them into his media player.
Before the third file finished playing, the voice clicked. This was what Grey most reminded him of, and the AI took notice, typing on the text document while Adrian sorted the files by length instead of name.
'That-is-an-interesting-choice.'
'It's one of the few voices I remember from the game this is from. Never cared for it otherwise.'
'Odd-for-a-game-designer-to-say-that.'
'It's just not my thing. I'm more into fantasy and post-apocalypse RPGs than space ones.'
'This One Thinks Such A Voice Would Suit A.I. Grey.'
'...Let-me-hear-more-than-just-combat-barks, please.'
'Alright. These longer ones should be full sentences.' Adrian then pulled a chunk of ten into his media player, and let them run. The dialogue from them was about a criminal and medical investigation, which included the character questioning risking hostages on a fleeing star-ship to stop a career criminal. Thinking Grey would be offended at the dialogue being spoken, maybe think he was insulting him somehow, Adrian stopped the clips before three had played in full.
'Keep-going. There-is-no-need-to-stop.' the AI texted to him.
Whew. Adrian did so, and once all the clips played, Grey continued.
'I-think-you-both-are-right. That-voice...seems-perfect.'
Adrian felt a tiny hint of what he'd felt when Raven chose his voice, before he reminded himself that Grey was only interested in taking Raven back, potentially for good. 'Then let me splice these into a long enough clip for the text-to-speech to be trained on.'
The process took at least a quarter-hour, with the audio editing program loading each file in, along with creating a visual audio wavelength for each one. As he worked, Grey and Raven didn't text a word. Adrian couldn't help thinking they were discussing things where he couldn't see again.
Once the file was built, he plugged in his phone and got the file loaded. The text-to-speech program took a few minutes to read it, process it, and finally give Adrian a notification:
Voice Successfully Synthesized.
Test It Out.Assuming Grey would default to him doing the work on the final test, Adrian entered a few lines to see what the program had made.
“Getting real tired of tourist season. No offense, but you guys are lowering the bar.”
“I think something...moved over there.”
“I've seen enough. Either help, or move aside.”
Between all the clips, like Raven's first one, the TTS was producing readings that were spoken too quickly. Adrian reduced the speed by seven percent, then reproduced the first line. This time, it played with just enough speed to sound natural, despite the still obvious, slightly-off rises in pitch where the TTS was thinking emphasis was needed.
Even so, the voice felt alright. If Grey was so convinced he wouldn't need it that long, this would do.
'Alright, it's done.' Adrian texted.
'I-have-the-honors?'
'Sure.'
As he kept an eye on the screen, Adrian could see what Grey was entering. Before it played, he lowered the phone's speaker volume to just above 20% of the max.
“You-have-my-word, I-will-not-use-this-unless-you-allow-me. Otherwise, thank-you. This-will-make-things-easier.”
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Now with 24 hours until he has to discuss Raven's situation, Adrian resumes what he and the AI were doing, before Grey requests a voice of its own.
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Grey's AI Voice / 4 Lines - https://1drv.ms/f/c/0cc1a5ef5f1d85e.....zBRi4?e=Y80Mgi
Category Story / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 120 x 120px
File Size 38.8 kB
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