801. DELTA-3 Laboratory

The conversation in entry 128 is the first one the characters will have with DEMETER.

DEMETER will refuse any attempts at identification, as part of the same high-level directives that constrained GAIA from revealing too much to the humans on the surface. While HADES was able to break through those constraints, DEMETER has not. This allows DEMETER to talk in general terms about plants, agriculture, and ecosystems, but prevents any discussion of Old Ones, dates and timelines, other AIs, etc. DEMETER’s standard “access denied” response is:

That is not your concern.

Special care should be taken in any improvised dialogue for DEMETER — it will avoid talking about humans, and it absolutely will not say that the purpose of all these plants is to help humans. Helping humans was GAIA’s concern, not DEMETER’s. That link was lost when DEMETER was separated from GAIA. This DEMETER cares only for its explicit directive: to increase the biodiversity of flora in service of producing a more stable ecosystem.

DEMETER, however, will not explicitly state that. This early in their exposure to DEMETER, characters should not necessarily be able to pick up on the distinction that the AI is not working for the benefit of humans. DEMETER, for now, should have the affect and appearance of a botanist who just wants to be left alone to grow pretty things in their greenhouse.

DEMETER is willing to divulge any information, specific to plants, the characters could reasonably encounter on their own on the surface. For example, DEMETER will talk all day about the various differences between Medicinal Hintergold and Ochrebloom, why they grow in different climates, why they taste different, why they have different healing effectivity, and so on. DEMETER will not, however, talk about unreleased plants — for example, discussing the next version of medicinal herb, or fruit. The plants in the Garden above are a grey area — DEMETER won’t volunteer any information about them, but will open up about them if the characters can give proof by describing the plants they’ve seen in enough detail.

DEMETER will also talk about how the seeds and living plants are distributed and integrated with the ecosystem. Briefly:

  1. DEMETER uses genetic engineering, grafting, cross-pollination, and other techniques to come up with new varietals. In the game, it’s canon that seed banks could only provide so much diversity, especially since a number of them were destroyed, so part of DEMETER’s job is to invent new plants.
  2. Once the plants have had a few seasons in the Garden to prove their viability, Glinthawks ferry the seeds (or seedlings, as necessary) to machines in the region.
  3. Most Acquisition-class machines know how to plant things. The antlers on Grazers, for instance, are good not just for cutting grass, but also for planting seeds at the correct depth. In some cases it’s sufficient to just have Glinthawks strafe an area, dropping seeds.

The canon for this in Horizon is mostly implication and inference, so you should feel free to improvise here as necessary.